1.23
Logan felt the familiar rush of adrenaline creep up his spine as he stared down the Stygian Silverback. He flexed his arms back and forth, feeling the familiar pull of the tether spikes tugging gently through his threads. He felt like a coiled spring ready to burst forth at any moment. Hunching low and positioning the now dented tower shield between himself and the animal, Logan cut off the radio feed between himself and the others with a thought, speaking aloud only when he was sure that it was just Vic who could hear him.
“Give me an x-ray scan, Vic,” he said, not taking his eyes off the Silverback, “I wanna see if these amateurs actually did anything useful.”
“Right away, Sir,” The posh V.I. exclaimed, and Logan felt a strange sensation at the back of his eyes before the beast suddenly turned transparent, its skeleton now visible to him.
The bones themselves were thick and dense, and incredibly resilient as far as he could tell. There were a few openings he could see though. Five ribs were cracked on the left side, compressing on the beast’s organs, and It’s spine had stress fractures, running the length of the discs. The one thing that made Logan smile though, was a series of cracks, snaking their way along the right side of the beasts pelvic bone, converging into an epicenter that was just dying to meet his mace.
“Alright… let’s do the damn thing.” He said, relaxing his grip on the Physilight rod controlling his shield arm and banging the flanges of his mace on its surface, attempting to goad the creature into making the first move.
The beast growled, resting its weight on its knuckles as it hunched low, snorting a blast of hot air out of its nostrils. It seemed confused at first, turning its head side to side in a manner of innocent query. But after a while it’s lips pulled back showing off a row of jagged teeth, before making a series of grunting shrieks, like a challenge.
“That’s it you big bastard,” Logan whispered to himself, banging on his shield at a faster pace, meeting the creatures sound of challenge, “Come on over and say hi,”
The creature had had enough, as it leaned back on its two powerful legs, before, with a mighty roar it leaped high in the air, shooting through the open space between it and Logan like a bullet leaving a chamber.
“That’s right! Come get me!” Logan growled with glee, back boosters on his crusader firing on full blast as he rushed to meet the beast halfway. As he calculated, he reached the Silverback faster than the creature expected, as it was still outstretching its hands and opening its maw, when Logan cracked it in the face with the flangers of his mace, grunting with an effort as he powered through, guiding the beast to crash into the ground.
That wasn’t enough to put the thing down however, as it rolled into the impact, popping up directly in front of Logan and wrapping its massive arms around the Crusader’s body, keeping him place as it fell on its side, pulling Logan with it, with both man and beast hitting the ground like two felled trees. Logan tried to free himself, but the ape squeezed him hard before opening its maw and sinking its massive fangs into the Crusader’s collarbone, spraying oil and hydraulic fluid everywhere.
“Gah! Fuck!” He cried, the synaptic feedback causing a spike of pain to erupt in the exact location where the beast had taken a chunk out of his armor. He tried struggling again to free himself but it was no use, and the beast turned, deciding to take an equal chunk out of the other side of Crusader’s chassis sending another hot flash of pain into Logan’s right shoulder.
Logan tasted iron in the back of his throat as he screamed again, “Fuck this!” He bellowed before delivering a bone cracking headbutt directly to the creatures temple. There was a low howl of pain that escaped the beasts throat and Logan could feel a slight weakening on his right side where the Silverback had pulled back on its arm to paw at its head. Logan took his chance, rolling out of the things grasp and scrambling to his feet, looking down as the creature continued to hold its head in its hands whimpering in pain.
“That sympathy shit ain’t gonna work on me,” Logan spat, taking his opening and swinging down in a wide arc to hit the creature’s pelvic bone full force. There was a crack, followed by a dull crunch, with the beast lifted off the ground by several meters due to the impact, before crashing back down, laying prostrate, its legs twitching uselessly.
The creature howled out again in a low whimpering bray as Logan walked around to the front, looking down at it. Blood leaked from every orifice as the thing tried to paw away from danger, seeing the true predator standing before it.
There was a feeling of pity that settled in Logan’s heart at the sight as his battle lust faded. It wasn’t this things fault for being created, nor was it at fault for escaping. It simply wanted to do what every other creature that drew breath wanted to do. Live. Be in a world bigger than itself, feel the dirt beneath it’s feet and the wind through it’s hair. But it didn’t get that. It wasn’t allowed to experience that peace. Instead, it had been hunted down, forcing it to fight for it’s life against beings it had never seen before in a fit of anger, confusion, and fear. And in the end, it had failed. Now it lay dying, suffering in unimagninable agony at the feet of a being that was probably as horrific to it, as it was to them. It wasn’t right and it wasn’t fair, but it was the way things were.
“I’m sorry big guy…” Logan said, his voice leaving the speakers in a soft, gentle tone. The creature looked up at him, eyes squiting through trails of tears and blood, trying to make sense of the sounds it had just heard.
Logan raised his mace, the spiked ball blocking out the sun, as he watched the creature coo in painful acceptance.
“I’ll make it quick.”
He brought the mace down hard, impacting with creature’s skull like meteor striking a planet. He didn’t look at the face as he raised the mace again, bringing it down in another heavy crash. Again and again he brough the mace down until even the Phyislight rod in his hand felt heavy and cumbersome, and the sounds of the dying beast had been silenced forever. He waited a few minutes longer, watching the creature’s body spasm to life again, it’s upper body flailing and pawing at anything around it to get away, before going still for the last time. The one might Stygian Silverback, reduced to nothing but a corpse on the forest floor.
Logan stood there, taking in the sight for a long while, getting his breathing under control. Finally, with a heavy sigh he sent a mental command and heard the celebrating chatter of the rest of his team as they congratulated him on a job well done.
The journey back to Syl-Techs research lab was quicker than Logan had hoped it would be. When the group had first set off to hunt down the Silverback, it seemed like an hour had passed before they’d actually found it. But now, it felt like they made it back before the blood could dry on Crusaders mace. For some reason, his mind kept replaying that look the creature had given him before Logan had bashed its brains out over and over. It was a unique condition for him, especially after having spent so long in the cockpit. He’d stopped trying to remember the units, or names of pilots he’d killed years ago. Hell, most of the time he didn’t even bother to remember the colors of a mechs paint scheme, or the planet he was on when he took a life. It didn’t matter. They weren’t people. They were faceless enemies hidden behind a wall of steel and hydraulics that wanted him dead. That, he could handle all day.
But this was different. Looking someone in the eyes as you take their life, was an act that stuck with you long after the event was over, even if that someone was a giant, genetically engineered killing machine.
“You alright man?” Cameron’s hushed voice of concern broke Logan from his thoughts. He looked up, realizing he’d been walking in silence for the past few minutes, locked in quiet contemplation as he and the rest of team left the docking bay and made their way through the maze of sterile white hallways, escorted by a pair of orderlies in similar white uniforms.
“Hm? Oh. Yeah, I’m good. Just trying to do some mental math is all.” He lied, flashing a grin as he changed the subject, “Need to make sure we get you threaded and a unit of your own without breaking the bank.”
A whistle came from the pairs right, as Logan turned to see Royce looking in their direction, his eyes wide in surprise.
“Damn, threaded and his own unit? You a sugar daddy or something? Cause I mean hey, I’ve been told I give great back rubs.”
Before Logan could even respond, Cayde had leveled a firm smack at the back of his partners head, looking equal parts annoyed and embarrassed, as Royce yelped in pain, “Ah, shit! What the hell man?!”
“Don’t mind Royce,” Cayde said, looking over at Logan, completely ignoring the cries of his companion, as he continued, “He’s got a bad habit of thinking he’s funny.”
“Fuck you I am funny.” Royce shot back, rubbing the back of his head where Cayde’s palm had struck.
“Sure you are,” Cayde said, “Like a lamp is funny, or a venereal disease.”
“What’s venereal mean?”
“You know… I’m not surprised you don’t know.”
“Look, I don’t know alot -”
“We know. This has been well established.”
“But I know an insult when I hear one!” Royce said, his voice rising as he took a step towards the mousy looking Cayde.
Cayde, to his credit matched the step with one of his own, making sure he got the last word in, “Really? What gave it away?”
Logan couldn’t help but laugh as the two continued to argue, hurling insults and swears back and forth so fast, it was impossible to follow who was actually winning. Naturally, he let the confrontation escalate just to the point when punches were getting ready to be thrown before he spoke up, stepping in between the two and separating them.
“Easy fellas, there’s no need for this to come to blows,” He began, his laughter finally dying down to a soft chuckle, “Cam is just a new employee of mine. My first one to be specific. Can’t exactly expect to be taken seriously as a GAC if I have my guys slumming it in a Squire now can I? The way I see it, it’s an investment, and I expect him to pay me back ten times over if things go as planned.”
“GAC?” Royce and Cameron asked in unison.
“Galactic A.R.M.S. Contractor,” Logan and Cayde answered together. They shared a look of amusement before Logan continued, “Anyways, yeah, long story short Cam works for me and because of that, an investment in his future is in investment in mine.”
“That makes sense,” Cayde acknowledged. There was a momentary silence as the four of them continued walking before he posed a question, “So, if you don’t mind my asking, you wouldn’t happen to have any more openings for pilots would you?”
Logan shook his head, offering a sympathetic look to the man, “Not right now I’m afraid. Me and the kid here have a previous arrangement so it makes sense. But I can’t afford to take on anyone else right now.”
Cayde frowned, looking dejected as his eyes turned to focus on the floor. Seeing this, Logan offered him a friendly nudge with his elbow, having the man meet his eyes as he offered a smile, “Ask me again in a couple of months when I actually have the GAC made and had us run a couple of ops. You have our radio frequency and I’ll give you my Captain’s Code so we can keep in contact.”
“Really?!” Cayde and Royce said in unison, excitement clearly heard in their tone, causing Logan to chuckle again with a nod.
“Sure thing. Good fighters are hard to find.”
“I couldn’t agree more, Mr. Rake,” A neutral, layered, robotic voice cut through the air like a knife, bleeding all the amusement and levity out in an instant.
The group turned to see Proxy standing there, hands clasped together in front of them, hidden underneath the baggy folds of its robes. Two more orderlies, each of which held two small purses in outstretched hands accompanied it on either side.
Logan’s smile dropped, his voice taking on its standard low growl, “I’m sure you do Proxy. Shame we had to put yours down.”
“A perfectly understandable consequence of an unfortunate situation,” Proxy said matter-of-factly. “However, there was indeed a silver lining I was able to scrape together thanks to you.”
“Thanks to me?” Logan asked, skepticism evident in his voice.
“Indeed,” Proxy confirmed with a nod, “Thanks to you mainly attacking the Silverbacks head, the body was left mainly intact, I’m confident in the ability of Syl-Techs genetic engineering team, that we can create a new prototype that will outstrip the previous asset in every way. More sensitive twitch muscles, denser bone structure, and a focus on obedience conditioning that we should never have this incident again.”
Logan felt his nose twitch as he tried not to snarl, having to stop himself from cracking his teeth with how hard he was grinding them. “It wasn’t an asset Proxy. It was a living creature, capable of feeling fear. Capable of cowering. I didn’t kill an asset. I killed a creature.”
Proxy shrugged, apathetic to Logan’s statement, “That’s something we can condition out, with enough experimentation I’m sure. But I wouldn’t wish to bore you with all the scientific details. I have your payment here, one lockbox of silver for each member of your team. Please accept this with the heartfelt thanks of the Syl-Tech corporation.”
Logan didn’t respond. He wanted to. He wanted to scream, to grab proxy and melt him down into a new chassis part to weld onto Crusader. He wanted to kill someone that deserved it. But he didn’t do any of those things. There was no point, and he knew that. So instead, he settled for the next best thing, snatching two of the purses, before tossing one to Cameron, calling out to him over his shoulder as he turned and made his way back to the docking bay.
“Come on Kid, let’s get the hell out of here.”