Barbarians

Out of the ruins, out from the wreckage

Can't make the same mistakes this time

We are the children, the last generation

We are the ones they left behind

And I wonder when we are ever gonna change?

Living under the fear, till nothing else remains

We don't need another hero,

We don't need to know the way home

All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome

Tina Turner - “We Don't Need Another Hero”

Jiyazh struggled to catch his breath once again as they arrived at the heart of the power plant. Nassat was handling the forced run they’d made much better...a benefit of being a quadruped...while Whisper had the freakish human physiology in his favor and was barely winded. The trio studied the complex mass of piping, conduits, and humming plasma runs before looking to one another in confusion.

“How do we destroy it?” Nassat asked.

The Dhyaksh checked his ammo pouches and grimaced. “Not with what I am carrying,” he said...as both turned their attention to the third member of their party. “Can you disable it?” the Khonhim leader asked.

The human grinned as he examined the complicated machinery. “Of course I can,” he smirked, “but you won’t like it.”

“Considering I have cared for almost nothing since I first put on this uniform, I would be shocked if it were otherwise,” Nassat sighed. “What must we do?”

Whisper shrugged. “Here’s the thing. I’m no expert, but one thing I know is that we don’t have enough explosives to do it the right way…so we have to do it the hard way.” He dumped his ruck and started fishing through it. “I can create a cascade failure to take this place down, but there’s a catch.”

“There is always a catch,” Jiyazh grumbled.

“The catch is that it’ll take time to make this work,” he told them, “time the machines can use to keep it from going critical.” He found what he’d been searching for in his ruck...explosives, and detonators...and began fashioning a bomb. “And once the cascade starts...every machine in these tunnels will be on our doorstep, just begging to get in.” He began to whistle as he assembled the device, as the other two stared at one another.

“And just how are we to get out?” the Khonhim leader demanded.

“The cascade will come in waves,” Whisper explained, grinning as he attached the fuse. “Once the last wave hits before it blows, they can’t stop it. That’s our cue to make for the exits.”

Nassat blinked. “And just how long is that?” he inquired.

Whisper laughed as he planted the bomb and set the timer. “Nowhere near as much time as you’d like,” he grinned, picking up his ax. He turned and headed back the way they’d come.

“...you may want to move,” the human suggested, sending the other two scurrying behind him.

Taichist and Chechla came skidding to a halt as the hit the tunnel’s end. It wasn’t the first wrong turn they’d made, but as the pair turned themselves back around and began to retrace their steps, they heard metal on metal coming towards them. The sound of pursuit that had kept them running nonstop since the ambush.

“How far back was the last detour?” Chechla cried out as they ran for their lives.

Her brother wracked his brain, struggling to remember before howling “I don’t know!” However far it was, the sound of the machines drawing near brought them both up short. There was no way they could make it in time.

Under anything resembling normal circumstances, they would have entertained surrender, but that did not come close to describing their current situation. With their line of egress cut off, and capitulation a sure-fire route to certain demise...the twins prepared themselves as best they could for the only option left to them. They took positions on opposite sides of the tunnel and hunkered down, readying their weapons in anticipation.

They did not have to wait long. At the first sign of movement, the pair opened fire, driving back the closest machines, but it was a short-lived victory. The enemy had numbers and time on their side...and the young Saurotaur’s ammunition would not last forever.

Chechla swapped magazines, certain in the knowledge Death was mere moments away...when a low rumbling sound seemed to reverberate in every direction. It was felt more than heard, and a heartbeat later their pursuers seemed to...melt away.

Wide-eyed, she turned to her brother. “...what was that?” she asked in astonishment.

His expression was just as dumbfounded as hers, but as he realized just how serendipitous the unexplained phenomena was, he staggered over to her side and tugged at her arm.

“...our chance for escape!” he shouted, pulling her behind him as they sought a way back to the surface.

Musashi lay down a base of fire as Tango and Graybird covered their flanks. They’d closed the distance between them and the power plant, but a wall of resistance seemed to materialize out of nowhere, stopping them in their tracks.

“We need to fall back and skirt around behind them!” Tango yelled to the others, her pistols firing as she looked for a way to do just that.

Graybird lobbed a grenade into a tunnel entrance, putting a few well-placed rounds into the machines that tumbled out behind the blast. “There!” he shouted, already up and moving with the other two right on his heels. Despite their age, the trio moved like clockwork, their years of fighting at each other’s side paying them much-needed dividends now.

Any hopes for an accurate map of the tunnels disappeared the moment the machines launched their ambush, but they had a ballpark idea of their objective’s direction and distance. Getting there was proving to be a problem, but if they could just find a way through the enemy ranks…

A heavy Thrum reverberated through the narrow corridor, rattling the specialists in their very bones. Their charge came to an abrupt halt as they stared at one another in confusion.

“What the fuck was that?” Musashi demanded.

Graybird checked his HUD display and blanched. “Oh...hell,” he got out.

“...what?” Tango quizzed him, taking a moment to reload.

“Someone’s triggered a cascade failure at the power plant,” he told them. “That sound was the feedback loop kicking off.”

The three teammates stared at each other before rolling their eyes in unison. “Whisper,” Tango sighed, voicing the opinion they all shared.

“Explains why he’s not with us,” Musashi agreed, before looking around. “Um…I’m not complaining, but...where did all the machines go?”

Tango shook her head. “They’re all falling back to the power plant to stop the cascade failure, what else?” she snarled. “There’s no way we’ll get through.”

“Then what the hell are we supposed to do now?” Graybird fired back. “We just going to cut and run?”

She considered that for a moment, then gave them a feral grin. “Hell no. We give them something else to chase. Come on,” she snapped, waving them towards a side corridor.

“We got a plan here?” Musashi inquired.

“Yeah...a bunch of unguarded ships,” Tango smirked.

They paused for a moment and then began chuckling with evil intent as they disappeared down the tunnel.

Admiral Otxoa gripped the armrests of her chair as she watched the machine fleet realize what she was up to. One would think the Masters...or whatever the hell they were...would be at least as fast on their feet as the Ronin, but it seemed as if they were consistently a half-step behind.

Not that she was complaining.

Maybe it’s their machine minds, their rigid mental architecture, she mused. Humans had long been known for unpredictability, and if the enemy had no experience with their fickle nature that was something she could exploit. She simply had no idea how.

If Nassat and his team could deal with the threat on the surface, she could turn back and finish the space-borne threat. But considering the size of his detachment, how lightly armed they were, losing communication once they were beyond the barrier, it appeared to be little more than a forlorn hope.

She couldn’t gamble the Alliance on that. Too much was at stake.

“Admiral!” her lieutenant shouted, “we’re picking up some abnormal readings from the planet!”

“I’d ask what the hell normal is around here,” she retorted, all but biting his head off, before dialing it back. “What readings?” she asked somewhat more civilly.

“Some strange power fluctuations, Ma’am,” he continued. If he was miffed, he hid it well. “They seem to be increasing in strength, and we’re seeing the effects planet-wide.”

Adelais stared in confusion. “But what would cause…” she began before a slasher smile appeared on her face. Perhaps she’d been too hasty in dismissing the good General’s efforts.

But that still left her with the machine fleet on her heels. She’d give him every second she could, but Otxoa had to shake her pursuers somehow. With her diving on the planet, how could she…

...in a flash, she had the answer.

“This is Admiral Otxoa to all vessels,” she ordered. “Batten down the hatches...we’re making a slight detour…”