From the right, a panicked, inaccurate spray of plasma fire erupted. Kaito was shooting wildly, his bolts splashing harmlessly against the automaton's thick chest plate. But it was enough. The machine's attention shifted, its rotary cannon swiveling towards the new threat.
That was the opening.
Haruto burst from cover. He didn't run towards the machine. He ran at the wall, his boots finding purchase on the slick stone. Three quick, powerful strides, and he launched himself sideways, flying through the air. He fired his own carbine mid-flight, a single, aimed shot. The bolt struck the automaton's head, not the armored faceplate, but the flexible, unarmored cabling at the neck joint. A shower of sparks erupted. The machine staggered, its head whipping to the side with a screech of tortured metal. Its cannon fired again, a wild, uncontrolled burst that tore a line of molten holes across the ceiling, raining down hot rock and scalding water.
Haruto landed hard, rolling through the ankle-deep water, the impact jarring his teeth. He came up on one knee, his rifle already back in his shoulder. The automaton was still reeling, its optical sensors flickering. One of them went dark.
"Riku, the knee joint! Keep firing!"
Riku didn't need to be told. He was a machine himself, a relentless, efficient engine of death. He had closed the distance, his carbine spitting bolt after bolt into the same spot on the automaton's right knee. A network of glowing, orange cracks began to spread across the armor plate.
The automaton recovered. It let out a piercing, metallic shriek, a sound of pure, synthesized rage. Its claw-arm shot out, faster than anything that large should move, and slammed into the tunnel wall right next to Riku. The stone shattered, a spiderweb of cracks erupting from the point of impact. Riku was thrown back by the shockwave, his body hitting the water with a heavy splash.
Damn it.
Haruto surged forward, closing the distance. The automaton's cannon was turning towards him. Too slow. He was already inside its firing arc. He holstered his carbine in a single, fluid motion and drew the combat knife from his belt. The blade hissed as he activated its vibro-edge.
He slid through the water, coming up right under the machine's pincer-arm. He drove the knife upwards, into the exposed joint where the arm met the torso. The vibro-blade screamed as it bit into the thick alloy. He put all his weight behind it, his muscles screaming in protest. Metal shavings, hot as embers, rained down on his face.
The automaton bellowed its metallic shriek again and tried to bring its claw down on him. Haruto twisted, pulling the knife free, and rolled away. The claw slammed into the ground where he had been, cracking the stone floor.
"Kaito!" he roared. "Its head! Shoot it in the head!"
Kaito, who had been frozen against the far wall, his face a pale mask of terror, seemed to jerk back to life. He raised his carbine, his hands still shaking, but his aim was true. A single bolt struck the automaton's damaged head. The remaining red optic flickered and died. The machine was blind.
It began to flail, its arms smashing wildly against the tunnel walls, its cannon firing in random, uncontrolled bursts. It was a wounded, dying animal, destroying its own cage.
Riku was back on his feet, his carbine once again spitting fire at the damaged knee joint. With a final, earsplitting crack, the armor gave way. The automaton's right leg buckled. It listed to one side, its metal feet scraping against the stone. Then, with a groan of protesting metal that seemed to echo on for an eternity, the ancient machine toppled over, crashing into the shallow water with a tidal wave of a splash.
Its limbs twitched once, twice.
Then, it was still.
The only sounds were their own ragged, gasping breaths and the steady plink… plink… plink… of water dripping from the ceiling onto the automaton's hot, silent chassis.
Haruto stood over the fallen machine, his chest heaving. Adrenaline tasted like metal and ozone in his throat. He stared at the thing, at the Imperial crest barely visible beneath a millennium of grime on its shoulder plate. This changed everything.
He knelt, ignoring the protests of his bruised muscles, and ran a hand over the automaton's chassis. It was cold now. Just a piece of dead metal. But it was a piece of his past, a ghost that had no right to be here. He found a maintenance panel near the hip joint, pried it open with the tip of his knife. Inside, a data plate was still legible.
KESTREL MUNITIONS - SECURITY AUTOMATON MK.II - SERIAL #734-A2-B9
DESIGNATION: U.E.S. VANGUARD
Vanguard. Not a warship. Not a colony vessel. An exploration ship. One of the first deep-space vessels the Empire had ever built. It had been reported lost over a thousand years ago. Lost with all hands in the uncharted Serpent's Nebula. It hadn't been lost. It had crashed. Here.
He understood now. The Duke hadn't just stumbled upon some local magic. He had found this. He had somehow reactivated its systems. The Weavers, their "magic"—it wasn't magic. It was a bastardized, misunderstood application of the ship's technology. The Locus wasn't a source of power. It was the ship's reactor core.
His comm crackled to life. It was Himari. Her voice was a tight wire of anxiety.
"Haruto, what was that? What was that noise? Are you all right?"
He looked at the dead machine. At the impossible blast door that now stood slightly ajar, the security protocol seemingly disengaged. At Kaito, who was now leaning against the wall, his whole body shaking. At Riku, who was calmly reloading his power cell as if he'd just finished a routine training exercise.
His own world felt like it was tilting on its axis. He was no longer just a soldier fighting a local tyrant. He was an Imperial officer who had just discovered a lost piece of his own history, a ghost in a machine that was about to change the fate of this entire world. The Duke wasn't just his enemy anymore. He was a heretic. A scavenger. A desecrator of an Imperial tomb.
And Haruto was about to become its avenging angel.
"We're fine," he said into the comm, his voice a dead, hollow thing that didn't feel like his own. "But the mission has changed. We're not here to cut the head off a snake anymore."
He stood up, his gaze fixed on the dark, yawning doorway that led deeper into the crashed ship. He could hear more sounds from within now. The low hum of active systems. The distant, rhythmic clank of more machinery waking from its long slumber.
"Tell Akane to pull out," he said, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous murmur. "Tell her to get everyone back to the fortress and prepare for a siege."
"A siege?" Himari's voice was filled with confusion. "What are you talking about? What did you find?"
Haruto took a step towards the darkness, his carbine held at the ready. He could feel it now. The ship. It was awake. And it was angry.
"I've found the heart of this world," he said, his voice a cold whisper. "And now, I'm going to cut it out."