The Reaper’s Legion

Chapter 41

Torn Apart

Gunfire filled the air, smoke and percussive blasts as explosives detonated in brilliant clouds of red and orange belched forth. There was almost a staccato rhythm to the orchestra of war that myself and my fellow man engaged in against a living calamity. Even so, with every forceful pop, every snap of a rifle discharging, Wolven was proving to be irrepressible.

My trench gun burrowed molten into metallic tendrils, what once was a simple mass of wolves had been changed, forged in the crucible of our fire. Silver and black metal that was as hard as steel intertwined, coalescing as far enlarged veins to what vaguely resembled the wolves that once consisted the bulk of the body. Sharp protrusions that looked more like barbs than limbs grasped outwards, an occasional featureless maw interspersed. Every piece was warped, bearing only the minimums, only the required.

A tendril two meters thick races past my head, claws seeking to whip my skull from my shoulders. I ducked beneath nearly instantly, my reaction speed having been pushed to the limit. My body kept up by virtue of the suit around me, servos and mechanical parts whirring gently with the effort. Spikes pierced the ground from my foot, giving me traction and stability where I needed it, an instinctual response at this point.

Even so, as it passed, a protruding set of jaws snapped shut over my head, mere inches from me. It was steel, and only steel; most discernible features on this creatures Wolven had absorbed had been stripped away on these tendrils, even the eyes. Clusters of unblinking eyes fed information to the main body, and as the writhing mass struggled to slow its long and wide swing I fired.

The trench gun tore through metallic tissues relentlessly. The first few shots crashed into the metal, denting the bio-metal mass but little else. But, after concentrated fire I was once more rewarded with the outer shells sickening crunch, heat and metal tearing deeply through the tentacle.

A small portion of Wolven might have noticed, but such things were happening on other fronts too.

“Salvo out!” Daniel’s voice shouted across the comm’s even as the tentacle I fired at snapped off, whipping around in agonized fury. I dropped to a knee as Daniel’s rocket salvo pummeled Wolven’s flank, carving a path through three such worming masses and damaging the bulky limb connecting to the shield.

I wasted no time, pushing forward as again, cutting ligaments and stretchy connective tissues that had been trying to lift the shield back into position. One segment to the right had already been brought up, the rest were kept in place by Legion interference. The situation was degrading, and the only reason why we hadn’t completely lost the defense was the fact that Bulwark was fighting the mass of wolves.

‘In melee,’ I grit my teeth, ‘They’re fighting it in a melee with the wolf masses.’

Instead of my trench gun’s roar, soft pomp sounds ejected from my off-hand weapon rapidly. Moments later half a dozen grenade explosions shredding through more of the tentacles.

“Dodge right!” Alice warned. I trusted few people enough to move off of that, but Alice definitely fit in that category. As I rolled off of my feet, pushing hard just in case, I noted six objects pass by me too fast to realistically scan.

Moments later, six explosions rang out, Alice’s arrows tearing the last of this connecting joint apart. It snapped backwards into the main mass from there, crushing several limbs and harming it even further. The fact that it’d even managed to move the ridiculously large shields like this in the first place was ridiculous.

If it’s offensive had been anything but devastating, we’d have been able to punish it massively for no longer having the barriers currently under my feet.

‘This fucking thing,’ I felt a hot pulse of anger rush through my body as I advanced once again. It was fighting off multiple parties at once, and focusing on the more distant battle going on behind the remains of the wall.

We were lucky that the rest of the probes that it had launched hadn’t been reeled back in, but it was a fact that if it managed to win against those of us here, Gilramore was finished. Anyone it obtained here would feed its potential, a potential that I regretted that I’d underestimated.

Had we made a mistake in skirmishing it? Should we have risked an outright blitz instead to reduce it to nothing? No, it was a fact that we didn’t have the plans in place to deal with this abomination without enough prep work. We’d done everything we could.

It was also a fact that I was going to find out what was going on with the Obelisks at the earliest possible time. Having better weapons would have allowed us to crush Wolven. Lasers would have melted and cut straight through this thing. Plasma would have been even better, let alone whatever other weapons existed.

I jumped over a tendril swipe, noting that several had been directed towards me, a tangled wall loosening to strike at me. The main body was close, the densest tangle of silver just ahead.

As a half dozen massive tendrils moved to strike me from several angles, I grit my teeth with the expectation that my dodge this time would not be a clean affair. Halfway to me, though, several long metal shafts speared through the limbs, silver blood pumping from wounds and shuddering through the tissue as they suddenly diverted on strange courses, twisting and turning.

A glint of light shining off of a metallic winged form informed me of who was helping me; Fran was busily controlling the fight wherever she could, but I could tell that she’d had to devote significant resources elsewhere to keep the Legion fighting, given the fact that her metal wings scarcely had any feathers remaining on them.

A rumbling beneath my feet gave me pause, it was the only warning I got when suddenly an inky black tentacle rushed out from gaps in the silver woven spherical barrier in front of me.

I ducked the first strike narrowly, severing the tentacle with a trench gun shot. A second, third, and fourth darted out immediately afterwards, a snarling noise accompanying them.

I spun on my heel, slipping past the second and blasting the third, but the fourth came in low, bundled thickly, before sweeping upwards at the last second. It slammed me in the gut, sending me tumbling through the air. The larger tendrils attempted to smash into me, diverted by the magnetic prowess that Fran demonstrated. The main body shuddered in what I felt had to be frustration, a dozen more tentacles diverting from other locations and surging towards me.

With seconds to spare, I controlled my landing, back flipping as my feet touched the ground. The tendrils smashed into the places just behind me, but the last strike smashed me to the ground once more, a claw raking across my side. Teeth suddenly found purchase on the right side of my torso as the mass pressed down around me.

A tremor of panic ran through me before I pressed down on my emotions with a calculative will. I released the trench gun, changing hands for my grenade launcher before my left arm lit up with red.

Red light blazed in the form of a lotus flower from my left arm, appearing exactly like the one that had both saved my life and burned off that very same arm long ago. It was larger, and in the next moment, was proven to be quite stronger as I fired a grenade in point blank range to the mass past the shield.

I can’t say I was thrown by the force of the explosion so much as chucked like a discus by it. My world spun, heat embracing my armor, but it held. The shield wavered but took the brunt of the damage, super heated air billowing out from the side of the bracer that supported the energy shield. My landing this time was far from graceful, the spinning blur coming to an abrupt halt with a metallic bang.

“Matt! You alive?” Daniel’s hulking mech loomed over me.

I realized then that I’d either hit him as I was flying, or he caught me. I shook the dizziness from my head before realizing the pressure on my right side was increasing.

As I looked down, Daniel cursed and scraped the head of the wolf off of my armor, the jaws designed to close. “It’s like a fucking ant.”

That comment confused me for a moment, before I remembered that there was some kind of ant in the world that some people could literally use to close wounds with their bite, just break the body off afterwards. Improvised stitches.

At least, supposedly that existed. I dreaded to think if a biotic had come about from them.

“This is a pain in the ass.” I groaned, lifting myself up to his shoulder and sitting there, “Thanks for the catch.”

“Anytime,” He chuckled, before turning serious, “How the hell do we get close?”

I looked around, the tendrils that had battered me now down one number and returned to the other fronts with my legion. Another shield was halfway risen, but the others were still down, giving us options for a frontal attack still. I couldn’t rely only on my own mobility, I needed something to distract…

“Shit…” I grunted under my breath, considering the best option. Daniel would probably do it, but it was far too risky.

“Hear me out here,” He began, and my stomach tightened, “I can get you close as hell, but we only get one shot.”

I breathed out, a long and annoyed gesture. “I don’t like it.”

“C’mon, I’m practically a locomotive at this point, I’ll be fine.” He spoke, unable to hide the slight wavering in his voice. “It’s just a massive disgusting amalgamation of parts that’s a living siege weapon. All you have to do is kill it before…”

“Before it kills you,” I spoke, a grim resolve settled. “Fran’s going to kill you for this, you know that right?”

“Make sure to give her that chance, otherwise she’ll kill you.” He grinned, “I’ve got a helluva lot more armor than you do.”

At that moment, I felt the ground shudder, Wolven redoubled its efforts. It was learning how to attack and move with its body with more finesse by the second.

“Now or never.” I cleared my mind, rolling back and clasping the back of Daniel’s mech for support.

Daniel breathed, flexing his body, and by extension the mech around him. “Alright. Alright. Let’s go!” He hollered, undoubtedly whipping himself into a fervor for what we planned.

“Clear us a path!” I shouted over to everyone. The titanic movement and rush of speed from Daniel’s mech caught Wolven’s attention, another dozen attacks heading our way.

“Deployment ready!” I heard Terry’s voice over the headset, “Brace!”

A field of lightning seemed to bloom into existence around Wolven, arcing off of it’s parts and sparking, exploding as pockets of suddenly superheated biotic burst into clouds of steam and smoke. It lasted for only a second, the flashy display serving to throw Wolven’s movements into disarray, a choir of the damned screaming to the smoke filled sky.

All at once we pummeled Wolven, tearing into it with abandon from all sides, splitting its attention. We weren’t the only ones rushing forward, and I listened as the Iron Chariots all cried out at once.

“For the Legion!” The roared call was taken up across the battle line, and I found myself surprised to have taken up the call as well, a rush of adrenaline surging through me. It was almost addictive, and in spite of the fear that gnawed at the back of my mind, I felt almost eager to dive into the fray.

Daniel crashed through the explosions caused by Alice’s arrows. His mech deftly dove between to gouts of acidic concoctions that matched Alice’s tempo, Richard Nordsen, the Adder, pushing forward with us, carefully keeping ahead of the defense Wolven mounted alongside the nimble archer. Fran pinned Wolven’s body wherever possible, leaving struggling to control its own movements. She focused her attention on our area, hoping to give us room to work with.

Daniel’s arsenal roared to life as he surged forward, firepower shearing through the softer black tentacles that sought to lash him away. Silvery limbs the size of trees unfurled and shot outwards as we neared. They were too few; Daniel’s heavy mech and unbridled firepower punished the half measure brutally.

“Matt, get ready!” He bellowed, both of us noticing that the cocoon of silvery limbs was alive of movement, dozens of limbs densely coated in metal displacing themselves in order to keep the threat away.

We tore through the first layer like a bulldozer, explosions and chips of shrapnel eating into these armored forms. They were hardier, too dense to tear through with what we had on hand. I could feel Daniel’s mech shudder under me, pushing against the tentacles as they surged forward.

In the next moment, I saw my chance, a gap in the structure. As I jumped, my feet finding purchase even on the moving tangle of limbs, I slipped through. The mass seemed to freeze for a hair's breadth, a moment of surprise at the smaller threat that had slipped through. I heard a sneering hiss from the mass within, one distinctly different from what I’d been hearing from the wolves.

I grinned, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that the main body was just in front of me. The clang of metal behind me announced the tendrils closing, my exit was no more. I also listened as the din of gunfire coming from Daniel abruptly sounded farther away, Wolven likely having batted him away with several limbs at once.

Tissues of inky blackness surged around me, far smaller and more prehensile, these looked much more similar to the tubes that I’d seen piercing wolves before this abomination had warped.

Even as the tangled surged towards me, I lifted my grenade launcher and engaged my shield. The shunting motion of the launcher ceased after four grenades, fire and shrapnel erupting furiously amidst the softer tissues. My shield held, my armor protecting me from the force of the impacts, a far cry from when I’d fought in the hollowed out biotic tunnel long ago. The blackness receded, still alight with the flames that clung to them stubbornly.

I rushed forward, looking for the main mass desperately. The mass under my feet was hardened like a lumpy steel floor, protection from the mines that it had wandered over time and again. The upper portion above me seemed likewise shielded, its experience with the artillery fire teaching it to bolster itself. This chamber lacked walls in the strictest senses, but the tentacles around were densely packed, intertwining around the two defensive plates.

The area around was twenty meters wide, and after the grenades, the tentacles were warily returning forward.

With as much attention as I could muster, I scanned the area around me, looking for anywhere that the main body could hide. Nothing was around, no humanoid form that I’d seen before. I paused then, my heart skipping a beat as my helmet picked up on a form above me.

I rolled forward, dodging a pair of raking arms as the thing hissed. I came to my feet, spinning with the grenade launcher in hand.

It whipped a long limbed arm out, smacking the launcher from my grasp as it surged towards me, suspended by black tubes that consisted of its lower body. What had once been a featureless creature now bore several streaks of silver, some dull with age. The dullest covered half of its torso and one of its pale eyes. New blots of silvery, including a pair of arms on its left side that were nothing but stubs, were still a brilliant sheen. Several other injuries marked its form, most all of them fresh, rivulets of damage having carved through some parts of it, yet it still remained alive.

For a second it staggered, its small mouth coughing up silver blood.

I drew my swords, edges gleaming with red light. It sneered at me, remaining eye narrowed with what I could only be clearly described as hatred.

The offensive came from me, rushing forward and slicing apart tentacles as they darted towards me. It recoiled hastily then, and I pushed forward as Wolven avoided me. The tentacles came faster, heavier, where there were only six or seven now I found dozens. I pushed through, carving through them as they obscured my sight of Wolven.

I discarded the blade in my left hand in the blink of an eye, replacing it with another of my grenades. With a hard pitch, I sent it deep into the mass before bringing my shield up once more. Heat billowed from the mass with the explosion, chunks of ichor and inky black flesh splattered everywhere, hissing as it hit my shield. Instantly I surged forward eager to press the attack on Wolven before it could retreat further.

Instead, I felt my stomach drop as Wolven surged forward instead, fire clinging to its form as it reached me first. It had taken some damage, but it had seized the surprise. I pivoted back on my foot, lashing out with my sword as it struck out with a limb on its right.

The attack was a feint, I realized too late, a giddy grin emerging on its face as it struck forward with two flexible, clawed limbs. It hit my armor, and in the next instant I found myself unable to move my right arm. I desperately reached for another side arm with my left before it snagged that, an arm and several tentacles binding it. It was close now, and I watched as it moved with the third arm on its left side.

A scything limb descended at my shoulder, hacking once at the armor. Horror bloomed in me as I saw the armor spark, the keen edge cleaving through most of it. It struck a second time, and agony raced through me, I grit my teeth, seething anguish. I had to get out of its rea-

The third strike left me screaming, cleaving straight through my arm as the surreal experience of every nerve giving way. My awareness didn’t falter as it descended on my left arm, taking fully six chops to get through my reinforced limb. The pain was only marginally less, though with the agony awash in my mind, I could barely call that a blessing.

Wolven lifted me up, arms behind my torso as blood spilled freely from my arms. Unconsciousness threatened me, but the Reaper within me remained defiant as my screaming turned to defiance, a froth of spittle gushing within my helmet.

It caressed my helmet with one of its limbs, bloody with my own life’s fluid. My mind shuddered at that, seeing almost a form of dreadful infatuation.

A pulse of something stirred within me, touching on my mind.

“You caused me so much pain. I am glad. You taught me change. I will change you now, you will be mine.” It giddily spoke, drunken on satisfaction that rolled through it. Fear dully rolled through the back of my mind. “No, no fear. I will remake you. We will be better, you and I. You will teach me much, these empty things will be filled with us.”

“Not… happening.” I seethed, knowing the words to be empty.

It did too, smiling still, “I hate you, you are the only one I hate. You are special.” It began to saw through my torso, beneath my belly. Desperation surged through me as I tried to think of anything that I could do, agony smashing through me every moment.

“You would be a waste as a husk.” It smiled, a pearlescent form emerging from the tangle of tubes even as it continued to saw, just cutting through my armor. “I will keep you intact after some… modifications. It will take time, but I will have nothing but time with your mind.”

I looked at the biotic sphere with dread and couldn’t help but to squirm around, desperately trying to pry myself from the entanglement. I reached for anything I could detect in range, desperate for anything that could help me, the realization once more that I no longer had arms sweeping a new range of sickly horror over my mind.

The pain in my midsection as Wolven’s serrated limbs dug into me shoved any rational thought under a sheet of white noise. I retreated into the more mechanical side of my mind, the clinical rationality a reprieve from the panic, the realization that I wasn’t just going to die here.

I reached out my senses, feeling for anything I could interact with, anything connected to the ReaperNet that I could use.

The grenades around my chest responded, the mines active there. Grimly, I set to activating them. Another pair of connections sparked on my awareness.

Setting the grenades aside for the time being, I would have one last desperate gambit. With chagrin, I focused on the shield connected to my left arm. The severed limb sat roughly beneath Wolven as it gruesomely worked through my tissues.

‘Don’t think about it,’ I quelled the panic, knowing I had moments before everything was over.

The second connection immediately prepared for impact.

I choked out words, coming as more a whimper. Wolven’s head tilted as it paused, leaning in.

“I know, it hurts. Bear with it-”

I smashed my helmeted head forward into where the bridge of its nose would be, pouring all of my frayed strength into the blow. It recoiled, just as the arm shield activated and pushed past its safety threshold.

“Ah, rebellious. That is okay, that ends now.” It smiled in spite of the trickle or silver flowing from its face.

It cut deeply into my abdomen, but as the thing paused, noticing the red light filling the room, I managed to seethe, “For the Legion.”

The shield module snapped loudly a moment later, searing light blasting forth in chaotic arcs through empty space and matter alike. Laser like in power, there was no noise beyond the sudden pop. A handful of red lines glowed through Wolvens body, and I heard a sudden wet plop and realized I was now lighter by a great deal. I fell from the grasp of the tendrils as Wolven shuddered, limbs falling away. It struggled through, keeping itself together with a messy swath of tubes as it gasped and shuddered, sparing me no attention. It took everything I have to focus on it, relaying its exact position to the second connection I’d found. Just as it seemed that Wolven might possible survive, a high pitched whistling resounded from outside.

Silver flesh exploded as Shade’s bladed form vaulted through the disorganized walls. There was a brief moment of realization in Wolven’s eyes, I thought, a moment where it looked at me and knew what I’d done.

It reached me for a split second before Shade tore through its torso, shredding it into tiny pieces even as it crashed through into the ground. The last thing I saw as consciousness faded was the ceiling suddenly sagging, falling down.

All the while, the only thing I could feel wasn’t the pain, the suffering. The fear of death trickled away, a stream of mortality that just didn’t seem to matter anymore. Wolven was dead, that was enough, regardless of what would happen. The coldness I felt in what was left of my shredded body gave way to a satisfying warmth that gently flowed from the depths of my being as my world drifted fully to blackness...