Mathias and stared at the exit that Offo had slammed open, bolting out of the room.

“What ritual did you use to raise that thing?” Mathias put his face into his hands, before turning and snapping to Tobias.

“Just… Raise Skeleton.” Tobias said, squinting at the door. “It shouldn’t… it shouldn’t have that much agency.”

“Unbind it. You have to.” Mathias said.

“No… it’s just a one-off thing. It will be back. I can control it. In fact, maybe it’s right… I bet it’s bringing another one of its kind back. The Steel Ones — we could raise another.”

“Tobias, it leaves every night, doing god knows what. What level is it, even? You let it rampage in a dungeon alone.”

Tobias squinted, parted his lips to say something, then paused. His eyes glazed over in the way that showed someone was reviewing their system, his fingers grabbing invisible pages in mid air and turning them. The frown on his face deepened as he stared.

“It’s… level 1?” Tobias paled. “Level 1, Grade 2.”

“Oh, fucking great. It’s classing up, too, Tobias. How long until it exceeds your Command?”

“There’s grades away from that. It’s not going to — it’s under my Command.” Tobias said, sounding unsure, then groaning, holding his face in his hands. “No. It needs stricter controls. We can give it stricter controls. Redo the ritual. Stop it from choosing its own classes and remove its agency… maybe we replace the soul…” Mathias stood, pulling a book out of a pocket inside his clothes — a tiny, personal notebook, which he flipped through.

“After the battle.” Mathias said.

Tobias nodded.

“Getting drunk already? Can’t you wait ‘til after?” The mage, and leader of the party, asked. He stood near the back of the group, unfolding a piece of paper. They walked together — no wagons or horses — following the dirt road. Loose trees surrounded it, a soft breeze blowing the scent of petrichor into the air. Their enormous packs rattled with every step, glass and metal bouncing against each other, striking a noise.

“Never know if you’ll live to see tomorrow.” The warrior replied, tilting back a bottle longer than his arm. The perfume of wine that was potent enough to affect an adventurer overwhelming the clearing.

“Lucky you don’t burn your eyebrows off with that shit.” A rogue replied. “’s why I never put points into End. The End of all things fun, y’know.” She smiled.

“What are we up against, chief?” The drunk warrior asked, burping.

“One Tobias Agrippa. Known Necromancer, suspected to be Grade 5, if not higher, but probably not fully specced into Wis. Previous Acolyte of… Maximus Agrippa?”

“Family relation?”

“Family — Family relation? Dude, that’s Maximus’s son.” The rogue interjected. “Maximus the Great? Lord of the Noble House Agrippa?”

“Former Lord, now.” The Mage said.

“Are you really an ex-Lord if you’re dead?” The rogue asked.

The warrior scrunched his face in concentration. Then relaxed it.

“Nope. No clue.”

“We spent a week killing his undead.” The mage said.

“Killin’ is killin’.” The warrior shrugged, taking another drink.

The rogue rolled her eyes. “Back to the brief, please?”

“Right. Tobias Agrippa. Grade 5 Necromancer. Likely to possess a small legion of undead. Maybe Acolytes, too, but they’re unlikely to possess any fighting skills or levels. Wanted for Heresy, Crimes against God, involvement in the Henry Incident, and the death or disappearance of 10 members of the Provisional Inquisition.”

“The… Henry incident?” The warrior’s brow furrowed.

“The undead! We fought for weeks! Zombies! Hello!” the rogue said, exasperated.

“The Provisional Inquisition?” The second Mage asked, raising her eyebrows.

“The Red Inquisition is probably still busy cleaning up from the Henry Dungeon.” He shrugged.

“Oh! Henry! That nice Blacksmith!” the warrior said, smiling.

“Yeah. That was him. He was a Dungeonspawn.”

“Dungeons can’t make humans.” The warrior turned, frowning.

“Thats right. The Dungeon kept bringing him back to life, but without memories of his death. He kept returning to town thinking it was the same day.” The Mage frowned. “Just another reason Necromantic dungeons are destroyed as quick as they’re found. And Necromancers are tried for heresy.” The Mage said.

“So we kill the Necromancer, get 200 gold, and then back on the road.” The rogue said, nodding.

“What’s for dinner?” The second rogue asked.

I contacted OFF03 as soon as I entered his limited comms range.

/SWITCH PRIORITY. BRING TOWN DEFENSES ONLINE. BRING ALL DEPLETED BODIES

/ ACK

I transmitted plans for building a wall encircling the town, the digital maps and renders I had for the area, and the likely composition of the houses based on what I had observed. 03 had been busy. The first autofactory was running at full speed — I could hear it from here, and see the billowing smoke of its internal foundry. It was being forced up with pressure, a thin stream of black clouds that exploded outwards as it reached toward the sky.

Piles of corpses littered the ground— the two combat bots were dragging more even now. Small mammal-analogues piled up outside, furry woodland creatures, birds, and even a few more monstrous shapes filled multiple piles.

Miniature versions of the starfish mechs were everywhere — the entrance to the ship was now open and cleared of wreckage, which was being fed back to the autofactory, using the supply to produce more starfish mechs.

They were each under a foot tall.

03 himself worked alongside the full sized starfish, pulling the finished starfish out and sliding them off of the tray they were printed on. The starfish then took the tray, loading it back into the machine, before running into the ship to gather more scrap.

At other areas, star fish stopped and attached themselves to a singular gigantic charging rack, affixed with solar panels. Other star fish were expanding it even now, every few trays of printings expanding their capacity, while another team of starfish worked to bring the next autofactory online. The two mining bots were no where to be seen, but another group of starfish brought raw materials, dumping them onto a pile by a conveyor belt. A full sized star fish scooped it up, loading it.

With a sudden disoriented movement other starfish stopped, moving in unison towards me. 03’s eye swiveled, first to me, then to the bodies. Two of the starfish remained to continue operating the autofactory.

/ ASSETS FOR PRIORITY DIRECTIVE: 53 MINIATURIZED ALL PURPOSE MECHS. ONE UNIT OFFICER VARIATION 3. 1 UNIT ALL PURPOSE STARFISH. 2 UNITS CROWD SUPPRESSION, ADS AND SONIC VARIATIONS.

/ACK

As the mechs grouped around us, the autofactory opened, pushing out its next production. a cart with treads and an underside motor rolled out of the machine. The starfish and combat mechs began loading the body-batteries onto it.

Then, without a word, we were off through the forest. The miniature starfish carried corpses with them. We were much slower, moving at 03’s maximum speed, it took us almost 2 hours to cross through the woods and arrive back at the town. The miniaturized mechs began disassembling the buildings, 03’s eyes jumping around the town, assessing it.

/ OFF02 WOULD HAVE BEEN BENEFICIAL

/ACK

Despite their limited size, the starfish were a roar of noise as they begun tearing apart the area board by board. Bodies covered dozens of square feet, dragged to the town. Others deployed a charging array down a road. The sound of disassembly was like a grinder running, mixed with the pounding of hammers. The town was being chewed apart by a great machine, eaten alive and reconstructed into our defenses.