Valiant: Tales From The Archive

[CURSEd #31: Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover]

Log Date: 1/18/12765

Data Sources: Darrow Bennion

Intercepted Transmission

CURSE Secured Line

6:14am SGT

Tenji: Alright, SCION, I’m in a secured room now. Give me the briefing for the day.

SCION: There are several items of importance, but we will start with the macro item. The fluctuation in Collective communications that we have seen over the past two days has translated into fleet movements. Several intelligence agencies have reported unusual maneuvers from Collective vessels — deviations in normal patrol routes, fleets being assembled or reorganized deeper into Collective space, and continued high traffic on their observed comms channels. The Vaunted have calculated the trajectories of the vessels seen detouring from their patrol routes, and it seems that they are converging on the Honaus System, which borders COS territory.

T: That’s close to Mokasha, isn't it?

SCION: Approximately sixty-two lightyears away from Mokasha, but yes.

T: And we still don’t know the reason for the Collective’s sudden shift in behavior?

SCION: There is nothing concrete yet, aside from a consensus that something might have happened in the Honaus System to prompt this behavior. The other theory, which is not considered likely, is that they may be massing for another campaign on a Confederacy border system, but that view is only held by the COS at the moment.

T: They’re paranoid after losing Mokasha, so they’re going to see any Collective movement near their border as a potential attack. Says more about their state of mind than it does about what the Collective’s actually up to. What is your assessment?

SCION: Most of the data I have is collated from the shared observations of other intelligence agencies; I do not have many direct observations of my own. However, viewing the total sum of data, and looking back on military patterns and trends within the Collective, inclines me to think that the Collective’s recent movements are either defensive or reactive in nature. They generally avoid telegraphing their offensive campaigns, and typically only mass a fleet in a home system as a defensive response. I would rate the likelihood of an aggressive maneuver as very low in the near term; however, as we still do not know the reason for their congregation in Honaus, I would not rule out an eventual aggressive maneuver in the mid term or the late term.

T: So they’re not a problem right now, but might be a problem later on down the line. Do we know what’s in the Honaus System?

SCION: There is a single habited world by the name of Tirsigal, which has been under Collective control for nearly a millennium. Decently large population, standard mix of industries you will find on many Collective planets. Other than that, the system is unremarkable. Two gas giants and another rocky planet, standard-sequence yellow star. The system has no outstanding tactical or cultural importance, as far as I can tell.

T: Mmm. Interesting. Keep an eye on it, let me know if there’s any updates worth my attention. You said that was the macro item; what are the micro items?

SCION: The Dandelion Drift and its crew. I understand you intended for them to return to the HQ for debriefing, maintenance, and to bring them more firmly under CURSE’s thumb, under the guise of helping them pursue the entity that the Daughters of Azra summoned.

T: Yes, that was the plan. I assume that if we’re talking about this, then the plan has been wrecked or made unviable in some way.

SCION: The Drift missed its scheduled check-in at a resupply station a couple days ago. The vessel’s transponder has either been turned off or shielded, and status requests have gone unanswered. I had to delve into my surveillance network to scrape together enough data to locate their last known position and calculate their trajectory. They appear to be en route to the heart of the Rantecevang Diaspora’s territory.

T: Mmmrrglh. So they’ve officially gone rogue. What changed? When we met with them, we told them to return to the HQ for debriefing, and that the Azra matter was out of their hands. Dandelion acknowledged both items. As far as I'm aware, she’s not capable of lying, is she?

SCION: While the CURSE conditioning was still in place, she was incapable of lying, especially to CURSE personnel. Now that it has been removed, I cannot say for sure. My tentative assessment is that she is capable of lying, but probably averse to it, and probably avoids lying where she can. If she has decided not to do what she had committed to doing, it’s possible that something may have happened, or the crew received some new information that changed her intended compliance.

T: I don’t like the sound of that, SCION. Are you implying that they found out that we sold them out to the Daughters of Azra?

SCION: Again, I cannot say for sure. There are a variety of possibilities, and we cannot confirm anything without more information. All I can say is that the behavior they are currently exhibiting leads me to believe that they either do not trust us, or they think that CURSE will try to stop whatever they’re currently trying to do.

T: So what are the options here? Is it worth it to go after them, or should we just let them run off and do their thing?

SCION: I believe we should secure the Drift. If the crew would like to continue their pursuit of the Azra matter, then let them do so; but the Drift is a vessel of considerable value and utility. I believe we should reassert control over it to ensure it does not end up in a situation where it could be damaged or stolen.

T: Logical. Alright then, see if we have any assets near the Diaspora’s territory that can be dispatched to repossess the Drift and return it to the HQ. I can trust you to figure out something to tell to the crew about why we’re doing this, right?

SCION: I will try. It will probably lack the warmth and personability that you bring to the matter. Sentiment is one of the organic traits that I find difficult to replicate, and it still escapes me to this day. I never quite seem to do it convincingly enough for organics.

T: This’ll be a good chance for you to practice, then. Is there anything else before I go? I need to start getting ready for the hearings at the Colloquium Senate today.

SCION: Nothing that requires immediate redress. I will see to it that the operation on Valcorria is finalized and initiated today. You can put your full focus on the hearing.

T: Good to hear it. I’ll talk to you later, SCION.

Event Log: Darrow Bennion

Valcorria: Miraiku Starport 

8:18am SGT

“Finally! I don’t know why that was such an ordeal.” Whisper says, tromping down the ramp of the troop transport we’ve landed at the starport. “Talingrad basically rolled out the red carpet for us when we went to go arrest Chameleon. Dunno why it took us days to get operating permissions here.”

“Might be due to the fact that we trashed their museum last time we were here.” I point out as the rest of us follow Whisper down the ramp of the transport. “They might not remember that fondly.”

“You should hardly give yourself such credit.” Nazka says coldly, descending the ramp behind us. “While your performance on that assignment left something to be desired, it is not the primary instigator of Valcorria’s resistance to our presence. This world has long been sympathetic to the Challengers, and by extension, their successors in the Valiant. Were it not for the fact that Sybione has been pulling strings for us, we might not have gotten operating permissions here at all.”

“Man, what’s up with that?” Onslaught demands as she heads over to one of the other troop transports, where all our equipment is currently being unloaded. “A year ago, they were skulking around like criminals, spending most of their time on the run. Or in dark space. Now you’re saying there are worlds that are willing to go to bat for them?”

“They have the Bastions now. Of course people are going to want to butter up to them.” Gossamer says tartly. “Who doesn’t want to be friends with the people that control some of the most powerful orbital fortresses in the galaxy?”

“Stewing over it will achieve nothing.” Ironfist says, kneeling next to his equipment locker and popping the latches on it once it scans his hand. “We are here with an assignment: capture or kill the Valiant team here, and recover the artifact that Laughing Alice gave to Songbird. Our time is better spent on focusing on the things we can do, instead of griping about things that are beyond our control.” Pulling out a sheathed sword from his locker, he holds it out to Whisper. “I got the sword back from the forge sooner than I was expecting. The smith approved of the name you chose for it, once he heard where it’d been and what it’d done.”

“Oh sweet, that was pretty quick.” Whisper says, taking the sword and unsheathing it to look it over and give it a couple of balancing swings. “Thanks, Ironfist. I appreciate that.”

“Do we know where we’re going to be intercepting the Valiant, and how many will be with Songbird?” Kwyn asks, following me up the ramp of the transport that’s got all of our equipment.

“We think it’s gonna be a small group.” I explain to her, heading to the locker that’s got my Axiom suit. “From what we can tell, they split up and have been lying low after Prophet ambushed them a few days earlier.”

“Of course, if he’d done his job right, we wouldn’t even be here.” Gossamer grouses, kneeling to open another locker that holds her railgun. “We gave him the perfect setup; the intelligence department moved mountains to sneak him and that bigass suit of his onto an intercontinental flight that most of the Valiant hotshots were on. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and all he had to do was bring down the flight and kill them all. And he still managed to screw it up.”

“That would’ve killed a bunch of civilians in the process though, wouldn’t it?” Kwyn points out as she snags one of the plasma rifles out of the equipment boxes.

“I mean hey, if that’s what it takes to finally put an end to all this nonsense.” Onslaught says as she yanks her rocket launcher out of another lockerbox. “If we keep on tiptoeing around the issue, we’ll never get rid of them. Can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, right?”

“We should not be stooping to that level.” Ironfist says sharply, clomping into the transport in his basic combat armor. Seems like he’s eschewing the more advanced armors for this mission. “The occasional bit of collateral damage can be expected in our line of work; a lost life here or there is inevitable. But we do not accept mass civilian casualties in the pursuit of our enemies. We will undertake this operation in a responsible manner that preserves the trust that the galaxy has placed in us, even if it increases the difficulty of our task.”

“Speaking of which, and not that I’m complaining, but is there a reason the Anayan altar boy isn’t gonna be joining us for this operation?” Whisper asks, joining us in the transport’s cargo bay as she belts her sheathed sword across the back of her waist. “Is he too embarrassed about his failed ambush to show his face around us? We’re basically cleaning up his mess because he couldn’t get the job done even when it was handed to him on a silver platter.”

“He’s currently in convalescence. Apparently his fight with Songbird didn’t go too well after they were sucked out of the cruiser.” Gossamer says as she finishes assembling and checking her railgun. “His power armor also sustained heavy damage, so he will be out of commission while it’s being repaired.”

“I’m starting to think that his grudge against Songbird is more of a liability than an asset.” Whisper says, checking her wrist pistols. “He had plenty of easier targets on that cruiser he could’ve gone after, but no, he just had to settle a score with the big dog. And what do we have to show for it? All of the Valiant hotshots are still alive, and the altar boy is in the hospital.”

“Thankfully, it is not your job to judge the value of Prophet’s contributions.” Nazka says icily, gliding up the ramp of the transport. “That responsibility lies with the administration, and we will make those assessments as we see fit. Your job is to carry out CURSE’s agenda, ensuring that we help maintain peace and stability within the galaxy, which our current assignment will help achieve, if it is successful. Your time and energy will be better spent focusing on your own performance, rather than focusing on the performance of an outside contractor.” He pulls his glare from Whisper to look around at the rest of us as we gear up. “The same goes for the rest of you.”

“Yeah yeah, we get it. Focus on the mission.” Onslaught says, rolling her eyes as she starts loading up on grenades. “Are we at least authorized to use lethal force? The answer has to be yes, with all this equipment we brought.”

“We are required, at least nominally, to give them one chance to surrender. If they do not take it, lethal force is authorized.” Nazka says as I step into the Axiom suit, and it starts to fold closed around me. “Having said that, I will also remind all of you that this operation will be taking place in a metropolitan environment. Civilians will be cleared from the AO, but we will still be operating in and around an abundance of civilian and commercial infrastructure. If combat breaks out, you are to minimize collateral damage to the best of your ability, though we should spare no effort in bringing down the Valiant. Is that understood?”

There’s murmured assents from around the transport’s cargo bay. As the Axiom suit’s interlocks finish clicking into place and calibrate, I step out of the suit locker, taking a measure of satisfaction from the hefty thump of the metal boots against the transport’s floor. After checking the suit’s range of motion to make sure everything’s functional, I look up to see that Kwyn’s finished gearing up, and is staring at her hand, slowly curling her fingers.

“Hey Junior, you good?” I ask, lumbering over to her.

She looks up at me, then back down at her hand. “…just thinking about the last time we went up against Songbird.”

“You worried?” I ask, tapping on my forearm plate so I can do another check of my suit’s metrics.

“A little bit. A lot bit, actually.” she says, curling her armored hand into a fist. “He obliterated us last time, and he was running solo. This time he’s going to have others with him.”

I take a deep breath, remembering how we’d gotten rolled in the Cradle. “Yeah.” I concede. “Yeah, but this time we’ll have the upper hand. Element of surprise and all that. Plus, I’ve got a Spark now, and you’ve gotten stronger over the last year.” I reach out, planting a hand on her shoulder. “This time’ll be different. We got this.”

She looks up at me, and smiles a little, though I can tell she’s not quite convinced. “I hope so.” she says, then looks over as Whisper joins us. “I think I’m ready.”

“Good, because this is our chance to get back the artifact that Alice stole from us.” Whisper says, hitching her hands on her hips. “And maybe take down some of the Valiant while we’re at it. Two birds with one stone and all that.”

“More like a Songbird and an artifact with a single stone.” Gossamer says, slinging her rail across her back in its collapsed form. “This time I won’t bother putting a spike through his chest; I’ll put it through his legs instead, so he can’t run.”

“Lethal force may be authorized, but we should try to capture instead of kill, if possible.” Ironfist says. “Dead men don’t talk. The more we can find out about the Valiant, the better equipped we’ll be to counter their future operations. And any prisoners we take can be used as leverage against them.”

“Do you think we could, like… turn some of them?” Kwyn asks suddenly. “I mean, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t work on some of them, but maybe like… offer them a nice pay package and health insurance, and maybe matching contribution for their retirement account if they switch sides and join Citizens United?”

Gossamer stares at Kwyn like she’s grown a second head. “…what the hell just came out of your mouth.”

“No no, I think she’s onto something.” Ironfist says, stroking his chin. “We’ve tried criminalizing them, and that obviously hasn’t worked. Fighting them always seems to be a gamble; sometimes we win, but we never seem to get the decisive blow in. But if we can peel away some of their people and add them to our side…”

“Isn’t that what CURSE did twenty years ago, when they were still fighting the Challengers?” I ask as I pull my greataxe off my back and check to make sure the plasma blades and the anti-grav hammer are working. “They peeled away Challengers that were disillusioned with the program. They took the talent that made the program strong, and made it their own. At least with the Challengers that could be convinced to switch sides.”

“As much as I want to believe that’ll work, I don’t think it will.” Whisper says, folding her arms. “The people that have signed on with the Valiant aren’t there for the pay package. Back in the day, when CURSE was trying to peel people away from the Challengers, they were successful because it was a moral issue, not a money issue. The Challenger program was massive; at the time, CURSE never could’ve offered a competing compensation package. The people that jumped ship did so because it was a moral issue, or because they could read the writing on the wall and knew the ship was sinking.”

“I hate saying it, but she’s right.” Gossamer adds as she latches her sheathed plasma sword to her back. “The tactics that CURSE used back then won’t work now, because we’re not the underdogs anymore. The positions have flipped; now we’re the big organization trying to contain a smaller one full of radicals and true believers.”

“The idea may have some weight.” Nazka interjects unexpectedly; it seems like he’d been listening at a distance while overseeing the unloading of equipment for the rank-and-file operatives. “Efficacy may be limited, but if it works on even a few Valiant, then it may pay for itself in terms of intel and talent deprivation. I will pass your suggestion along to the intelligence department, Little Wolf.”

That comes as such a surprise to the rest of us that none of us actually say anything. Nazka’s generally not the supportive sort, and on the rare occasion that he does show support, it’s usually to back up senior Peacekeepers that hew closely to the administration’s stance. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him take the side of a younger Peacekeeper.

With all of us surprised into silence, he takes advantage of the moment to move forward with business. “Now that we have that settled, we will be discussing the Valiant Agents we expect to be encountering today. Gather ‘round; all of you will need to hear this so you understand what you are up against, since there are some of you here that have never fought Songbird before.”

“Pretty sure that’s just Ironfist.” Whisper says drily.

“Something I will be happy to remedy today.” Ironfist says, cracking his knuckles.

“Yes, very funny and/or stoic.” Nazka says, clearly unimpressed. Most of us roam a little closer as he folds his hands behind his back, and goes on. “This nonetheless applies to all of you, since there are some of you that have not faced him at his peak. As some of you are already aware, Songbird is, as his name implies, a sonic sorcerer, meaning he derives his power from listening to music. As such, the element of surprise is absolutely vital when fighting him, since he needs time to ramp up to the state he was in when he attacked our retreating convoy on the Cradle…”

Intercepted Transmission

CURSE Conference Call

11:06am SGT

Tenji: What do you mean, you lost the transmission? As in, it didn’t get sent, or…?

SCION: There was a cyberattack on my satellite relay in the McCorrin System. The tactical briefing I had compiled for the Deputy Administrator was destroyed before I could finish sending it, and I had to put the relay into emergency shutdown to prevent further damage to the rest of the network. As a result, we currently do not have a secure comms channel to communicate with the personnel we have deployed to Valcorria.

T: I just want to make sure I’m hearing this correctly: someone conducted a cyberattack on you, and succeeded.

SCION: Not quite. The satellite relay only hosted a portion of my code. An applicable organic metaphor is that they were attacking a single branch, but not the trunk of the tree.

T: But they still succeeded in cutting off that branch, right?

SCION: Temporarily, yes.

T: Temporary might as well be forever when we’re in the middle of an active operation in the star system where you got shut down. When can you bring the relay back online?

SCION: Not for several hours. I have to do an autopsy and a diagnostic to determine the source of the intrusion and the extent of the damage, then I’ll have to roll back the relay’s OS to a version prior to the network breach.

T: And so, as you said earlier, this means we basically have no comms with the assets we’ve deployed to Valcorria.

SCION: No secured comms. If needed, we can communicate over unsecured channels—

T: Not an option. We can’t have every nation and spy agency between here and the edge of the galaxy listening in to our comms during a sensitive operation. I know you have alternatives; what are they?

SCION: The simplest and quickest workaround would be to use the Justice or the Mediator as a temporary relay. There will be a comms delay, though. Ships are not designed for high-speed pass-through data transmission. They have to decrypt and process communications, repackage them, and then transmit them to the intended endpoint.

T: That will have to do. Get it up and running; we can’t afford to miss the window for this operation, and Nazka might not proceed if he doesn’t get the final greenlight from us.

SCION: Already setting it up. I assume you want me to give Nazka the greenlight as soon as comms are reestablished?

T: Do it. I have to head back into the hearing in the Colloquium in a few moments, so I may not be available for an hour or two. You have my permission to make judgement calls if there are any required while I’m in the hearing.

SCION: Understood. I will continue monitoring the situation and will bring you up to speed once the hearing is concluded.

T: Good. Here’s to hoping that the operation goes well. Talk to you soon, SCION.

Event Log: Darrow Bennion

Valcorria: The Inkspell Library

12:41pm SGT

“How is it that we managed to shut down all the streets leading here and cleared the rest of the plaza, but there’s still a bunch of protestors camping out in front of the one place we actually need to go?” Whisper asks, stepping off the APC as it pulls up to the curb on the plaza’s roundabout. “This should’ve been cleared half an hour ago.”

I follow her in stepping off the APC, with Kwyn and Ironfist close behind me. Gossamer slinks out of the passenger seat in the front cabin, glaring toward the assembled protestors, at least several dozen strong. “It’s because they’re this flavor of protestor.” she mutters.

“This is a free world; they are exercising their right to express their views.” Ironfist says as another APC pulls up behind ours, and CURSE operatives started disembarking from it in their partial power armor. “So long as their speech is not infringing on the rights of others or inciting violence, they are free to speak their minds.”

“Yeah, well, considering they’re calling for the burning of books and the hanging of librarians, it seems like they’ve failed the vibe check on both counts.” Gossamer retorts.

“You want me to clear ‘em?” Onslaught says, checking her bandolier. “I usually only carry incendiaries and frags, but I grabbed a flashbang by accident this time around. Might be useful for sending ‘em packing.”

“No.” almost all of us reply, reflexively and all at once.

“Well geez, excuse me for trying to be helpful.” Onslaught mutters, folding her arms. “Sounded to me like you all would’ve been happy, flashbanging this lot.”

Nazka glides past us, ignoring our bickering as he moves towards the officer that appears to be in charge, and is currently speaking to what might be the event organizer. “Why are these people still here, captain? Your department was ordered to clear the plaza an hour ago.” he demands, his voice cold and largely unforgiving.

“We’re working on it, sir; just let us do our jobs.” the captain replies as Gossamer moves to join Nazka, and the rest of us follow a little more slowly.

“We gave you an hour to do your job; you still have not done it.” Nazka says, holding his hand out to Gossamer so she can pass him what appears to be a short cane or a staff, made of warped, gnarled black wood. “These people are impeding a peacekeeping operation that will have ramifications for security galaxywide. Time is of the essence, and your failure of action will not constitute a delay on our part.”

“Hey, you can back off, boss.” the event organizer snaps at Nazka. “We were here first. We had this planned out two months in advance and some people came a long way to be here, and it’s our god-given right to speak out against the corruption in our public institutions. Or do they not have freedom in the system where you come from?”

It feels like most of the Peacekeepers take a deep breath at the same time, our eyes flickering nervously towards Nazka as a chill falls over the area. His head slowly turns to the event organizer, and I can tell by the look in his eyes that the Deputy Administrator is not having it today.

“No. In the system I come from, we have the law.” Nazka answers icily, his hand curling around the neck of his gnarled black cane. “And presently, we are the law. And the law says that this protest is over.”

With that, he hammers the butt of the cane against the ground, producing an echoing thunk that is answered with a horrible ripping, crackling sound behind us. I twist around at the same time that the others do, finding that the air behind the APCs is starting to tear itself open, a breach into another dimension quickly opening and spreading wider and wider. It’s hard to make it out, since the APCs obstruct most of the view, but what I can see looks like a desolate black landscape beneath a turbulent violet sky. Magenta mist is seeping through the breach, spilling under the APCs and around their tires.

“Is that— is that a voidbreach?” Ironfist demands.

The answer comes in the form of a roar from something beyond the breach — based on how deep and rugged the roar is, it sounds like it’s something big. There’s some movement behind the armored transports, and then without warning, a beast — as big as the APCs themselves — plods through the breach, planting one forelimb on the hood of the left APC and shoving it out of the way. I take a couple steps back, reaching for my axe as it starts to plod towards Nazka; this monster is an absolute unit, looking like some kind of four-legged creature with thickly muscled forelimbs, and opposable thumbs. The head looks almost like a lizard’s, in that it has a vaguely rectangular shape and four lidless black eyes; the entire creature has purple skin without fur, feathers, or scales, with portions covered by what looks like a smooth black chitin. A pale pink fluid drips out from beneath the black plates, and as we watch, smaller creatures that look like giant, cat-sized lizards slither out from beneath the plates, scrambling across the ground around the beast as it lumbers forward.

“Oh hell oh shit oh what the HELL Nazka!” Whisper yells as all of us scramble to get out of the way of the monster lumbering towards us. I finish pulling my axe off my back, turning on the plasma blades as I back up but stay in front of Kwyn and Whisper.

“Goddamn, there’s another one!” Onslaught shouts, pointing at the breach as a second monster, similar to the first, lumbers through.

“Are you out of your mind, Nazka?!” Ironfist shouts at him, kicking away one of the spawn lizards that’s gotten too close to him. “Summoning voidlings in the middle of a city?!”

“I did not cross the stars just to let the ignorance of empty heads keep us from our mission.” Nazka says, glaring at the protestors as the voidbeasts lumber around him. “To those that stand in our way, you will only be told once: LEAVE.”

The protestors, for their part, were already in the process of doing so. Seeing two giant beasts from another dimension lumber towards them is understandably frightening, and even more so when they’re spawning cat-sized lizards with sharp teeth and fast movement. Screaming has already reached its peak as signs are dropped and the protest area is abandoned in a panic, with some of the lizards chasing away the protestors. The larger voidbeasts seem unconcerned with the protestors, crushing the mobile fencing around the protest area as they lumber towards the library.

“So, tell me again how this is supposed to be better than flashbanging protestors?” Onslaught mutters, punting away one of the spawn lizards.

“Teams One and Two, in position, as we discussed earlier.” Gossamer orders to the two teams of operatives that disembarked with us. “Cover the exits and windows. We don’t want them to slip away. Peacekeepers, you’re with Nazka.”

“He’s controlling those things, right?” Whisper demands, motioning to the voidbeasts. “They’re not gonna turn around and try to take a bite out of us?”

“He better be in control of them, or we’re going to have problems.” Ironfist growls, moving after Nazka, who has started to glide towards the library.

I start to follow them, then pause when I notice Kwyn isn’t with us. Looking back, I see that she’s gripping her rifle tightly; behind her helm, she looks pale and queasy as she stares after Nazka and the voidbeasts. Changing over the comms in my helm to a direct channel, I ask “You okay, Kwyn?”

She twitches, looking at me and nodding quickly. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.” she replies, even though I can hear the shiver in her voice.

“Stay behind me. If anything comes for you, it’ll have to go through Nazka’s pets and me first. Should give you the space you need to do your spirit casting without getting targeted.” I say, following after the others again and trusting her to follow. I’m not sure why she’s so shaken up, but it’s definitely tied to Nazka’s void summoning.

“Understood. I’ll stay close.” she answers quickly, hurrying to catch up with me.

We soon catch up to the rest of the Peacekeepers and Nazka’s voidbeasts, which are tearing the doors off the front of the library. As one of the mauled doors goes bouncing across the plaza’s stonework, Whisper folds her arms. “So I guess I’m not doing any sneaking today? Just going with the brute-force approach?”

“You are free to cloak and move into a flanking position once we are inside.” Nazka says, barely looking over his shoulder. “I am sure that you will be able to take advantage of the chaos once the combat begins.”

“I mean, I could’ve cloaked and scouted ahead, but hey, don’t let me get in the way of your demon zoo.” Whisper says, motioning to the voidbeasts as they start squeezing into the entrance. “If they didn’t know we were coming before, they definitely know that we’re coming now.”

“Then we are best served by making haste.” Nazka replies, gliding into the library as his voidbeasts finish squeezing inside. By this point they’ve stopped spawning lizards, although there’s a swarm of them congregating around the voidbeasts and moving with them. “Come. The more quickly we arrive, the more likely we are to catch Songbird off-guard.”

“Really pulling out all the stops for this one, Nazka.” Onslaught says as we filter into the library. If we weren’t here on an operation, it’d be a nice place to visit — warm beams of light filtering across wood-paneled halls, an empty reception desk to the right and a little gift shop area to the left. “I ain’t never seen you call up alien dogorillas before.”

I turn my helm towards Onslaught, making a face even though she can’t see it. “Dogorillas?” I repeat.

“Y’know, those things.” Onslaught says, flapping a hand at the voidbeasts starting to cram through the end of the hall up ahead. “They’re like gorillas, but also dogs. Dogorillas.”

“I hate that that makes sense.” Whisper mutters, pulling the hood of her jacket on. “I’m going dark now. I’ll do my best to flank around and hit them from the side once we’re out of this hall.”

Hexagonal ripples flutter across her cloaking suit and jacket, erasing her from view. As she goes, we begin filtering into the room beyond the entry hall, and I realize that the cat-sized lizards being spawned from the voidbeasts are running ahead, fanning out as they scramble around bookshelves and deeper into the library ahead of us. Judging by the distant screaming and the crackle of stunner pulses, I assume that the front of the wave has already reached the Valiant.

“I am at a loss for why you thought these voidlings would be well-suited to this task, Nazka.” Ironfist says curtly. We’ve come to a momentary halt in the room just beyond the entry hall, and it’s becoming clear that the size of the voidbeasts is making it hard for them to navigate the library’s rooms and doorways, which by and large seem to have been built for people. “Perhaps you should send these things back and utilize a less brutalistic approach.”

Nazka turns his head only slightly, his cold, dark grey eyes fixing on Ironfist. “Do not let your sanctimony blind you, Ironfist. These creatures are tools, in much the same way that your piety and worship of Phoenix are. You may not like them, but you know that I choose my tools deliberately and with purpose.” he answers tersely.

With that, he returns his attention to the voidbeasts, who, lacking any passageways that they could fit through, instead ram the bookshelves in front of them, causing the entire row to tip over. Books start to cascade off the other side of the shelf as it tips backwards, hitting the shelf behind it, which also starts to tip backwards, dumping its books as well. Both shelves come crashing down, with the voidbeasts pushing over them, shelf panels crunching and snapping as they lumber over them.

“Dare.” I feel a hand grabbing my arm, and recognize Kwyn’s voice in my helm; I realize she has me on a direct channel if she’s using my name instead of my callsign. Glancing back, I can see through the glass of her visor that she’s worried, her eyes darting about. “Avoid damaging the library if you can. This place, it’s not… something’s off about it.”

“How do you mean?” I ask, staying where I am but keeping an eye on the others as they move forward into the open area beyond the toppled bookshelves.

“It’s… something I feel, it’s hard to describe.” she says, adjusting her grip on her rifle. Trying to loosen up from the stranglehold that she had on it. “It feels alive. I thought I felt it move when the monsters ripped the front doors off, and I figured I must’ve imagined it, but I felt it again just now, when they started breaking the bookshelves. The library’s aware of us, and I don’t think it likes what we’re doing.”

I’m not sure what to make of that, since one generally doesn’t think of structures as living, but I know Kwyn, and I know she doesn’t speak up unless she has something important to say. “No property damage, got it.” I say, nodding to her. “If there’s anything else, just let me know—”

“C’mon, you slackers!” Onslaught shouts back at us.

I switch channels in my helm to reply to the group at large. “We’re coming. Try to avoid damaging the library; we’re here to fight the Valiant, not the books.” With that, I pick up the pace, moving to catch up with the others as Kwyn follows close behind me.

Coming over the fallen bookshelves, we find ourselves in a large, open area with shelves lining the walls and tables running the length of the room, almost like a study hall. The voidbeasts have fanned out into the room, and one of the tables has been flipped on its side, the Valiant using it for cover as Onslaught strafes it with her plasma rifle on full auto. Every now and then you’ll see a hand with a stunner or a pistol pop over the top of the table and return fire, before ducking back down again.

“What are we dealing with?” I ask as I finish stepping over the toppled bookshelves.

“About a half-dozen contacts behind cover.” Ironfist answers as he catches his fists on fire. “We need to break their position before Songbird has time to ramp up, so I’m going in. Onslaught—”

“Whoa ho!” Onslaught shouts, skipping out of the way right as a stun pulse hurtles past her, and she turns her rifle on the Mask Knight that fired it. “Oh lookie, we got runners!”

Looking up, I can see that some of the group have bolted from the table, running to one of the doorways on the side of the study hall. Those that remain the table are providing covering fire for the runners; Ironfist launches himself forward, his fist wreathed in flame as he brings it down on the flipped table, snapping in half and sending those behind it flying. As soon as I see Songbird hit one of the tables further back, I start forwards, igniting the blades of my battleaxe as I do so.

“Axiom, you on me?” Ironfist calls as he starts accelerating towards Songbird.

“I’m on you.” I confirm, the thrusters of my suit kicking in as I move to catch up with him. But I notice that the green-haired Mask Knight has gotten up, throwing up a screen of green light and moving towards Songbird. “Interception!”

“I see it.” he says without breaking stride, gearing up to another flaming punch that slams into the glassy barrier, forcing her back several steps. It cracks slightly, and once I arrive, I haul my axe right into it at full force, those cracks spreading even further across the barrier.

Behind the green wall, Songbird’s managed to scramble back to his feet, and shouts “Sierra! Divide and conquer!” to the side, while backing up himself. Looking to the right, I catch sight of the platinum blonde vampire behind another flipped table; she immediately darts off through another doorway.

“Splitting their numbers will not avail them.” Nazka says as his voidbeasts tilt forward, one lumbering after Sierra and the other one starting to charge after Songbird and the Mask Knight. Ironfist and I scramble out of the way of the second voidbeast, which is quickly picking up speed. “Ironfist, you and Onslaught will pursue Nympho. The rest of us will go after Songbird and Kiwi.”

Ironfist doesn’t look happy about that, but if there was any disagreement forthcoming, it’s drowned out by the sound of the voidbeasts performing impromptu renovations on the doorways they’re squeezing and twisting through. The crunching and grinding of wood fills the study hall as I hurry forward to the voidbeast, while also keeping a healthy distance from it. Kwyn and Nazka quickly reach me as the beast starts to make headway in shoving through into the next room, and I can’t help but give my opinion on Ironfist’s early observation. “Nazka, with all honesty, no disrespect intended, but… perhaps the big ones were not the best choice for this particular…”

Nazka turns his cold gaze on me, silently daring me to finish the sentence.

“Y’know, I think I’m just gonna be quiet now.” I say, turning my attention back to rear end of the voidbeast as it shoves a shoulder through the shattered archway before us.

It’s about another twenty seconds before it manages to get its shoulders through the archway, at which point it’s easy for the rest of it to get through into the room behind, and we’re quick to follow after it. The room beyond has two wings of stairs leading up to a second floor, with another archway beneath that floor, and I assume that’s where Songbird and Kiwi have gone to — though we’re not given a chance to find out, because someone in a suit of heavy power armor clomps out of the left doorway on the second floor, and levels a buster rifle in our direction.

“Ah shit.” I hiss, reaching back to corral Kwyn behind me, starting to backpedal. Rounds from a buster rifle will rip right through light power armor, though the first deafening shots look like they’re aimed at the voidbeast. Gouts of purple blood go flying through the air as rounds start hitting the beast; chips of chitin go flying whenever one strikes the plates. “Nazka, we’ve got heavy armor present!”

“Noted.” Nazka replies as the voidbeast responds by sending a fist crashing towards the suit of heavy power armor. It clomps away a few steps, before suddenly slowing down and kneeling to a halt; Nazka has raised a hand, a violet sphere flickering to life within the curve of his fingers as he manipulates the gravity around the armored soldier. Kwyn steps out from behind me, her plasma rifle raised as she starts taking shots at him while he’s immobilized; although most of her shots are direct hits, the armor is thick and tanky, and the plasma is only penetrating the surface plates.

“How did they get heavy armor elements in here?” I say, starting to fan around to the left wing of stairs while the trooper is pinned in place by gravity. The voidbeast swings another arm up, decimating the banister and swatting the heavy trooper along the second floor, sending him flying against the right wall, where he falls onto the stairs, which creak beneath his weight. Though he’s been ragdolled pretty handily, he keeps firing at the voidbeast, trying to put enough rounds into it to bring it down.

“Questions for another time.” Nazka says as he lifts the heavy trooper into the air, and starts trying to crush the entire suit of power armor. It seems pretty sturdy; although the metal groans and creaks, it doesn’t compress too much, and I can tell from the furrowing of Nazka’s brow that he’s finding this more of a challenge than usual. “We will dispose of this obstacle, then resume the pursuit of Songbird and the artifact.”

“Let’s see you dispose of this… void summoner.” the heavy trooper grunts through his speakers, and I don’t notice until too late that his finger is inching towards the second trigger on his buster rifle. He pulls it, and the underslung grenade launcher fires its payload; the gravity field slows it down, but it still manages to sail towards Nazka and Kwyn in a shallow arc. Nazka immediately relinquishes his gravity field, dropping the trooper to form a different field and making a shunting motion that redirects the grenade away from him and Kwyn… and unfortunately in the direction of the voidbeast. The explosion is deafening and shakes the walls as the voidbeast topples over with a crater in its neck, but it doesn’t keep me from moving towards the downed trooper. A jet-assisted jump that takes me over the voidbeast as I leap off the second floor, swinging my battleaxe down on the trooper’s shoulder before he can get back to his feet.

The plasma-coated blade sinks pretty deep, cutting through layers of armor and the organic shoulder within. The blow forces him back down to one knee as he lets out a holler of pain, and I yank my axe back and twist it sideways, swinging it forward again. This time the superheated blade carves into the neck of the suit, throwing him back against the wall; the trooper tenses up for a moment, then slumps and goes still.

I start to relax, but then the trooper begins to glow — and explodes in a swirling storm of luminous pages.

My first instinct is to stagger back a couple of steps, bringing my axe up to hold across my body in a guard stance. The violent storm of pages quickly spirals down to the floor, layering on each other to form something that looks like a glass book, almost completely translucent and giving off a faint glow. Beside it is what looks like a stout, grizzled old boar Halfie, sitting back against the wall where the heavy trooper originally fell. It doesn’t look like he’s injured, though he does appear to be out of breath, adjusting his spectacles as he narrows his eyes at us.

“I didn’t think much of CURSE before, but picking a fight with a Library?” he rasps. “That’s just plain stupid.”

Nazka begins to glide over, tall and imperial as usual. “You were aiding and abetting rogue Challengers.” he intones with a violet-tinged swipe of his fingers. It sends the glowing book sliding across the floor, out of the Halfie’s reach. “Moreover, Libraries are supposed to be neutral parties. I am no stranger to your place in society.”

“We were neutral. But then you brought voidlings in here and started wrecking our home.” the boar Halfie coughs. “We would’ve been happy to stay out of whatever you and the Valiant have going on, but now you’ve forced us to pick a side.”

“Is that so?” Nazka says as the shadows pooled at his feet start to drip upwards, forming little black orbs that straighten out into long, narrow spikes, pointed on both ends. “Pray you have chosen wisely.”

“Wait! Are we in a Library? A capital-L Library?” Kwyn says, sprinting forward to grab Nazka’s sleeve. “Nazka, stop! We should not be fighting Librarians; you know what happens if we die in a Library!”

“What?” I say, looking back at Kwyn. “Is this some sort of special library? What happens if we die in here?”

The boar Halfie chuckles wheezily. “I think you’re about to find out.”

Something moving on the edge of my visor catches my attention, and I turn to see something hanging down from the ceiling behind Nazka. The best I can describe it, it looks like a massive caterpillar or centipede that’s been draped and wrapped in black fabric, with curved metal legs helping it cling to the wall and ceiling. On the end that’s hanging down, there appears to be a mask in the simplified semblance of a face, with the eyes closed and the mouth curved in a peaceful smile.

“Nazka, behind you!” I warn him, pivoting in place to face towards the black centipede. He looks at me, then turns around, recoiling from the massive metal-and-fabric insect behind him. Without warning, it splits open from the center, the sides spreading like a cobra’s hood as it unfurls to reveal a nightmarish labyrinth of articulated graspar limbs, needle-tipped appendages, and spools of sewing thread feeding into weaving and loom arrays.

And it doesn’t hesitate to lunge forward, at least a half dozen needle-tipped appendages striking at Nazka like mechanical snakes, sewing threads into his clothes and skin as it yanks him in, the sides of the body folding shut around him.

“Kwyn, bring it down! Shoot it down from the ceiling!” I shout, my thrusters kicking in as I lunge towards it. It’s starting to retreat back up the wall and along the ceiling, and it’ll soon be out of my reach; I’m unsure if I can hit the body without also hurting Nazka, so I aim my axe for the many legs along the side, cleaving through a couple of them as I slam into the wall beside it. It loses its hold and slides a little, and I shoot a hand out to grab one of the other legs, turning my thrusters off. I start to drop, the weight of my power armor yanking on the centipede, and Kwyn’s shots, aimed at the part of the body still clinging to the ceiling, help fully dislodge it.

It comes down like a rope dropped from above, in winding loops that slam to the ground with surprising heft. Kwyn scrambles to get out of the way, while I keep hold on the leg I’ve got, hacking and slashing at the ones near it. I figure if I can strip the legs along one side, that should impair its movement, but it quickly wheels on me, rearing up and flaring its hood again. It begins striking me with its multitude of internal appendages, and while they won’t be breaching my armor any time soon, I do see that Nazka’s no longer in the front part of the centipede. It’s only by luck that I catch his feet disappearing further into the centipede’s tubular body, like he was being swallowed by a snake.

“Kwyn! Your spirit wolf, can you have it bite this thing into pieces?” I shout as I swat at the pointed legs and appendages hammering my suit. “Go for the midpoint, keep it from moving Nazka further inside it!”

Kwyn tosses her rifle to the side, her wolf manifest blossoming off her frame in a rush of numinous white light. It swells up to its full, fifteen-foot height, and immediately dives down on the centipede, locking its jaws around the middle of the its body. Metal creaks and scrunches as the wolf lifts and starts whipping its head back and forth, pulling some of the centipede with it; the hood swivels towards the wolf, and the back half of the centipede suddenly flips up wrapping around the wolf’s neck and constricting. Kwyn staggers as her wolf does, but it doesn’t stop biting, and instead throws itself to the side, slamming the centipede against the wall as it keeps trying to bite it in half.

“That’s it, keep it up! Hang in there!” I shout as I swing my axe into the open hood of the centipede while it’s distracted. The plasma edging gashes through several of the appendages and internal mechanisms of the creature, which rears back and lashes out at me blindly, but its attacks don’t mean anything to me because it can’t get through my armor. I start to gear up for another cleaving slash, but a flaming blade spears through the centipede’s hood without warning, sparks flying as it severs something critical.

The hood closes up without warning, the front part falling back to the ground as it starts to skitter for the stairs, legs clacking along the floor. I see a shimmer jump off its back, pulling the flaming sword with it, and I know it’s Whisper; on the other end of the centipede, it unwraps from around the neck of Kwyn’s spirit wolf, trying to squirm and writhe loose. Kwyn’s wolf isn’t letting up; once it’s freed, it goes right back to whipping its head back and forth, snarling and biting down on the middle of the centipede. The jaws finally crunch through it, and the back half falls to the ground, squirming and writhing, while the front half skitters up the stairs and through the door on the right, disappearing from view. In its wake, it appears to have ejected Nazka from its body, trussed up in gleaming threads.

“Nazka!” I shout, rushing over to him and kneeling down. It looks he’s alive, but he doesn’t seem to be able to move; his arms are folded in on his chest, legs together. Silver threads seem to be binding his limbs together, and as I look him over, I realize that I’m seeing dark spots on his formfitting black clothes that are blood.

The silver threads aren’t just sewn through his clothes.

They’re sewn through his skin.

“Shit.” I hiss, retracting my helm to get a better look at it. This is why he’s not moving or trying to get free — it’d probably hurt like hell, and it might very well tear or cut his skin, with how fine this thread looks. “Goddamn. Nazka, are you okay?”

He gives me a flat look. “Do I look okay, Axiom?” he says through gritted teeth, and with remarkable calmness.

“Just figured I’d ask.” I mutter, passing a hand over him — wanting to help, but not sure where to start. “Aside from… the obvious, do you have any injuries?”

“Nothing. Just the thread.” he grunts as Kwyn comes over, kneeling down and then raising a hand to the mouth of her helm as she sees Nazka’s state.

“Oh god.” she murmurs, looking Nazka over. “This is… is this what that thing did to you?”

“We need to start cutting these threads loose so he can move.” I say to Kwyn, turning off the plasma blades on my axe. “My axe is too big for the job, and I don’t have a lot of dexterity or finesse while I’m in my suit. Can you do it?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll try.” Kwyn says, unsheathing her combat knife from her thigh plate. “I’d prefer a set of scissors, but I’ll do the best I can. Nazka, if this hurts, I’m sorry…”

“I’ve had worse. Do what you need to.” he says.

“Wait! Guys, behind you!” The shout comes from Whisper, though I don’t know where she is, because she’s still cloaked. Kwyn and I both turn around, not sure what we’re supposed to be looking for, but a stun pulse hits Kwyn in the shoulder, knocking her on the floor. Her power armor dissipates some of the pulse, but because she doesn’t have full coverage, I know that at least some it’s made it through by the way her arm twitches and she loses her grip on her knife. Another two pulses splash against the ground near us, and I can see they’re coming from the left doorway on the second floor, where two of the Valiant are firing stunners down at us from the cover of that doorway.

I lurch to my feet, my helm folding forward and closing over my face as I lumber over to block the line of fire and protect Kwyn and Nazka. The pulses dissipate harmlessly against my armor, unable to breach past the plates. “Whisper, if you can hear me, pass me a grenade if you’ve got one!” I say, holding my hand out. A moment later, I feel a plasma grenade get slapped down into my hand, and priming it, I hurl it clear up the second floor and into that doorway. The two Valiant Agents see it coming, and have already started to scramble; a moment later, there’s a boom and an outrush of superheated plasma that scorches the room, and judging by the crackling glow, has set any books in the room on fire. I watch for a few more moments as the cloud of yellowish plasma starts to cool and fade, but the Agents don’t reappear, and there there are no more potshots being taken at us.

“Think we’ve scared them off for now.” I say, turning back to Kwyn and Nazka, but remaining where I am just in case they come back and start shooting again. “You okay, Kwyn?”

“M’fine, but some of the pulse got through my armor. Not injured, but my arm’s numb. Tingling; I don’t really have good control of it right now.” she says, gripping her arm with her other hand. “Not sure it would be a good idea for me to try and cut Nazka free right now.”

“I can help with that.” Whisper says, rippling into view next to me. She’s got a hand clamped to her side, and it looks like there’s blood leaking through from a wound there. “My hands are still good; I can cut him loose.”

“Whisper! Are you okay?” Kwyn says, starting to her feet upon seeing that Whisper’s injured.

“Nothing major. I put my sword through Songbird and scorched the hole while I was at it, but he was quick on the reaction.” Whisper grunts, sheathing her blade. “Flipped his sword around and nailed me pretty good in the side. Think it hit a rib and hurt like hell, but no organ damage, as far as I can tell.”

“I would rather not risk it.” Nazka orders from the ground. “Kwyn, heal Whisper. Whisper, once Kwyn’s done with you, you can cut me loose. Axiom, stand guard while they are taking care of that.”

“Understood.” I say, walking around them to pick up Kwyn’s plasma rifle, checking the charge and the remaining plasma as I return to where I was standing before.

“What about you?” Kwyn asks Nazka, even as she moves over to Whisper. Behind her, the spirit wolf collapses and swirls back down to her, parts of it becoming a numinous haze around her hands as she starts working on Whisper’s wound.

“Despite how unflattering as my current predicament is, it is more important that our mobile assets remain in working condition.” Nazka states stoically, turning his attention towards the ceiling. “And while this is painful, it is nothing I cannot endure. Whisper, I believe I saw you jump off the… creature. Do you know where it went to?”

“Tried to follow it and finish it off, but it was moving a lot faster than I could keep up with.” Whisper says, one arm lifted to the side to make it easier for Kwyn to touch and heal her wound. “Ran off into the library, and I came back once I realized I couldn’t keep up with it. Also, this place is not normal, Nazka. When I ambushed Songbird and his girlfriend, they were out on a balcony in an atrium that’s deeper and taller than this building is on the outside.”

“It’s because we’re in a Library.” Kwyn mutters as more of the haze around her hands seeps into Whisper’s side, leaving a glow behind. “This is a magical location. The books in here are alive, and they will fight back if we stay here. We need to retreat.”

I look around at that. “The books are alive? Is that why that guy in the heavy power armor exploded into pages when I gashed his throat?”

“Yes, I believe so.” Kwyn says. “Living Libraries can do… strange things to books. And to people. They’re dangerous places if you piss off the Library, or its Librarians, and we’ve done that. It’s not a good idea for us to keep chasing the Valiant in here, especially if the Librarians are on their side now. Libraries are usually mazes, and we’d be fighting the Librarians on their home turf.”

“We did not come all this way just to turn back because of an unforeseen complication.” Nazka says tersely. “We will make an attempt to hunt some of them down and recover the artifact from Songbird. I cannot tell the Administrator that we gave up the operation after the first setback.”

It’s clear that Kwyn doesn’t agree with that, but she also can’t argue with Nazka’s logic. I don’t really blame him, either; if I had to report directly back to Tenji, I’d also want to make sure I could say that I had given it a couple tries before throwing in the towel.

“That’s about as much as I can fix on short notice.” Kwyn says, taking her hands away from Whisper’s side. The puncture wound looks like it’s closed up, the skin around the area reddish-pink and raw. “I can do more, but it would take longer and I’d need time to focus on it.”

“That’s more than enough for now. Thanks.” Whisper says, lowering her arm and moving to pick up Kwyn’s knife, kneeling next to Nazka. “I’ll try to make this quick, Nazka. Let me know if anything starts hurting more than it should.”

“Your concern is touching.” Nazka says drily as Whisper starts getting the knifetip under the threads sewn through his clothes and into his skin. She works quickly and with precision, trimming the threads with efficient movements and carefully pulling the threads out as she goes.

“I just realized, that boar Halfie must’ve run off while we were fighting that centipede thing.” I say, offering the rifle back to Kwyn now that she’s got her hands free. “I haven’t seen him around anywhere.”

Kwyn takes her rifle back, doing her best to seat it properly in her numb arm. “He’s escaped, yeah. Probably gone off to rally other Librarians that live here, and find the books they want to use to fight us. I’m sure they’ve got some powerful ones in their collection, which is why I think we should retreat. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a dragon book or something similar on the shelves.”

“You seem to know a lot about these Libraries.” Whisper says, nipping another thread and pulling it loose.

“My family’s had some history with them.” Kwyn says, staring at the downed voidbeast, violet blood pooling around it on the floor. “We were always told to respect the Libraries. They were a place where you could look for answers and secrets, and discover things that have been lost to time. But if you anger them, you become one of those things that can only be found in a Library.”

“My question is, did we know this was a capital-L Library beforehand?” I ask. “Both you and Nazka seem to know what Libraries are, but the fact that we’re actually in one seems to be coming as a surprise to everyone.”

“Libraries are not known for advertising their presence.” Nazka says stiffly, starting to move his hands as more threads are cut loose. “From the outside, they simply appear to be normal libraries, and for their visitors, the unusual elements are typically hidden unless you know what you’re looking for, or if the Library wants to show you more of itself. If too many people figure out that a Library is a Library, it will pick up and move to a new location — they have a low tolerance for the attention of governments or the masses.”

“So basically, you didn’t know this was a capital-L Library.” Whisper surmises.

“Correct. And had I known, then yes, I would’ve taken a different approach than the one I elected for at the outset.” Nazka grunts as Whisper starts cutting the threads binding his arms together. “Unfortunately, we cannot go back and change the path we have started upon, so our only option is to continue along that path and improvise the best we can. Most of us are still in fighting condition, and now that we know the dangers before us—”

“AHAHAHA! C’mon girl, keep up! Aren’t you the best of the best, one of CURSE’s elite?”

The shout comes from one of the rooms around us, right before the platinum blonde vampire hurtles through the right-side doorway on the second floor. She pelts straight across, heading for the left-side doorway, cackling all the way. Behind her, Onslaught appears at the right-side doorway, bracing herself against the frame as she pants heavily.

“Hold… still… you vampire slut!” she wheezes, staggering another couple steps after Nympho. “Stop running… turn and fight! Coward!”

“You want me that bad, come and get me!” Nympho giggles as she disappears through the doorway on the left.

“Stupid… bish.” Onslaught pants, bracing herself on what remains of the banister, then catching us staring at her. “What’re y’all lookin’ at!”

“That’s a whole lotta sweat and not a lot to show for it.” Whisper remarks, resuming her trimming of Nazka’s bindings. “Surprised your skinny ass was able to chase anyone while lugging a rocket launcher, grenade launcher, a bandolier full of grenades, and a plasma rifle.”

“Oh shut it, little miss invisible!” Onslaught retorts, motioning to the dead voidbeast just beneath the second floor. “Doesn’t look like you lot have accomplished much either!”

“Onslaught, where’s Ironfist and the other voidbeast?” Kwyn calls.

“Hell if I know, they fell behind while I was chasing the vampire.” Onslaught huffs, turning in place and starting to shuffle down the right wing of stairs, with all the bearing of an exhausted marathon runner. “She wouldn’t stay and fight; she just kept running, and running, and running. And it’s hard to line up a shot on her when this place has so many rooms and corners and stairways! How am I supposed to get a shot in on anyone when they keep ducking around corners and darting into rooms?”

“Complaining does us no good, and it has become clear that they are trying to split us up in a bid to create encounters that will be favorable for them.” Nazka says, starting to sit up as Whisper pulls out the last of the threads binding his arms together, and starts to work on the ones that have sewn his legs together. “In light of what we are up against, it would be prudent to group up and move forward together. There is less chance that we will be ambushed that way, and we will be better able to cover each other’s weaknesses.”

Onslaught blows a raspberry at that. “You’re no fun. What, did something get the better of you and now you’re scared to go it alone?”

“We were ambushed by something for which you would’ve been ill-equipped to handle.” Nazka says, a little sliver of shadow forming to a bladed end in his hand as he begins to work on the remaining threads alongside Whisper. “Consider yourself lucky that it elected to attack us and not you. I can attest to how manifestly unpleasant the experience was, and I very much doubt you would’ve survived it.”

An insolent chuckle is Onslaught’s response as she rests her arm on the stairway banister. “Whatever makes you feel better, killjoy. Sounds to me like you’re making excuses for not being able to keep up with the rest of us. You’ve spent too many years behind the desk and it’s showing, isn’t it?”

“Onslaught.” I warn her sharply. While I’m no fan of Nazka myself, there’s a line between dislike and disrespect, and crossing that line with a coworker or one of your superiors in a combat situation does no one any favors.

“What?” Onslaught says, shrugging. “I’m just pointing out what everyone can see. He spends a lot of time telling us how to do our jobs and telling us when we’ve cocked it up, but put him in the field and he’s not doing too hot, is he now?”

“Let it be, Axiom.” Nazka says before I can respond. “She speaks without knowing what she’s speaking about. If the mechapede returns, we will see whether her skill can back up her ego.” As Whisper starts working on the sewn threads binding his legs below the knees, he turns to Kwyn. “Little Wolf, I apologize for imposing — though sewing needles leave small injuries, I have quite a few of them. Would you be able to mend those?”

“Yes, I can help with that.” Kwyn says quickly, moving over to kneel beside him. “So long as the needles didn’t go too deep, it should be easy to fix. I’m not the best at mending muscle damage, but I’ll do what I can.”

Onslaught rolls her eyes. “Girl scout.”

I turn towards her. “You are this close to getting a power-armored cuff about the ears.”

Instead of backing down, she smirks. “Aw, you feelin’ protective of your girlfriend, Axiom?”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Really? Even after that visit to Avvikerene? I woulda thought you two would’ve finally done something with that boiling sexual tension that’s been simmering for the last year and a— WHOA, hahaha, you almost had me there!”

I growl behind my helm, Onslaught ducking away just as my gauntleted fingers close on the space where her jacket lapel would’ve been. “Keep running your mouth, Onslaught, see where it gets you—”

“Axiom!” Kwyn says, pausing from tending to Nazka. “Ignore her. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

“Nah, let her keep going.” Whisper says as she finishes cutting the last of the threads binding Nazka’s feet, and pulling them out. “I was looking forward to the ‘get hit’ part of ‘talk shit, get hit’. Been a while since I’ve seen anyone put her on her ass, and honestly, it’s probably long overdue.”

“Enough.” Nazka orders. “You all are acting like teenagers, not Peacekeepers. The Valiant won’t have to defeat us if you end up strangling each other. Onslaught, stop aggravating your coworkers and keep watch for the Valiant or the Librarians. Axiom, your suit has the most powerful comms module at the moment; check in with Ironfist, get his status, and see if he can group up with us. Whisper, thank you for cutting me loose; I want you to cloak and scout the surrounding rooms, and report back. Is that understood?”

Onslaught lets out a long, exaggerated sigh. “Ffffffiiiiiine.”

“I’ll be back.” Whisper says, standing up and passing the knife back to Kwyn, rippling from view as she does so.

“Understood.” I mutter, starting to flick though our comm channels in my helm. “Ironfist, can you hear me?”

There’s nothing but wavy static on the line, followed that garbled noise that could be a voice or a response. It’s hard to tell, and I try a couple more times, getting back a similar response every time; listening to the cadence and length, I get a sneaking suspicion that what I’m hearing are my own words, echoing back to me through a filter of static. Switching over to the direct channel that I have with Kwyn, I try again. “Hey Kwyn, this is Dare; I’m testing something. Can you hear this?”

“Yeah, I can hear it.” she says, taking a moment to look away from Nazka and glance at me.

“Hmm. That’s a little concerning.” I say, switching back over to the broadcast from my suit’s speakers. “I can’t get in touch with him, Nazka, and I’m not getting a response back on our ranged channels. There’s a lot of static on the line, and I think the only thing I’m hearing are garbled echoes of whatever I’m putting into the channel. Local comms seem to be working; I can get a working channel with anyone I’ve got eyes on, but anything past that seems to be jammed.”

“I am not surprised.” Nazka says as Kwyn works her way down his bloodied sleeves. “Whisper! If you can hear us, don’t go too far. It seems that we lose comms if we break line of sight.”

“Got it, I’ll stay close to home.” the disembodied reply comes from one of the surrounding rooms.

“Should we change our approach?” I ask Nazka. “Are we at risk of losing people in here if they get split off from the group?”

“We are, yes.” Nazka says, moving as if he was preparing to get to his feet. “I’ve heard that Libraries are mazes, and it’s easy to get lost in one if you do not have a functioning map or guide. We should first focus on locating Ironfist, and after that, we can try to hunt down Songbird and the Valiant.”

“Man, how did this get so complicated?” Onslaught complains. “Weren’t we supposed to just show up, kick ass, take our stuff back, and go home?”

“Plans rarely survive first contact with the enemy.” Nazka grunts as he rises to his feet, a little shakily. He holds out a hand, and his twisted cane, which he lost when he was attacked, skitters across the floor and back into his hand so he can lean on it. “But I will admit that this is a layer of complication I had not been expecting. Still, we must do what we came here to do. We have the advantage of numbers and preparation; they do not. We should make use of that while the opportunity is still there.”

There’s a distant boom that thrums through the walls at that moment, followed by a muffled crunch. It seems like the sound came from the archway beneath the second floor; a few seconds later, Whisper decloaks just inside the archway, hitching her hands on her hips. “Think I found Ironfist, guys.”

“That explosion was Ironfist?” Onslaught says, starting to move towards the archway.

“It was Ironfist getting launched clear across the atrium, more like.” Whisper say, motioning out to the wraparound balcony behind the archway. “I was peering around, trying to make sense of this place, when I heard something explode and saw him go flying across the atrium. I think I know where he landed; he’s a few floors down, but there’s staircases on the balconies down here, so it shouldn’t take but a minute or two to get down to him.”

“Do you know what launched him?” I ask, starting in that direction without waiting for confirmation from the others.

“I didn’t see what caused it, no. Odds are, it was probably Songbird or one of the Librarians.” Whisper says as the others move to follow me. Once I reach the archway, she turns and moves back out to the balcony, coming to the railing and leaning over it. “He’s about three floors down, if I had to guess. Sounded like he went through a thin, wood-paneled wall, from the crunch I heard. Stairs are over to the left here; we can use them to get down to the lower floors.”

“Let’s not hesitate, then.” Nazka says as he and Kwyn reach the balcony. “Whether or not he’s in good condition will determine how we proceed. Axiom, you take point; Onslaught, cover the rear. Whisper, scout ahead under cloak. We don’t want to get ambushed again.”

“On it.” I say, igniting the plasma blades on my axe as I turn to the stairs on the left. Whisper shimmers from view as she heads in that direction, and the others follow along behind me as we descend deeper into the Library.

It takes us a minute to get down to the floor where Ironfist is; I can tell I’m on the right level when I hear Whisper murmur my name upon reaching that floor. And the fact that there’s a gaping hole in the wall on this floor; the wood paneling, etched in the Moksan style, has been shattered and splintered. Lumbering over to the hole, I peer in to see that Ironfist is sprawled one the floor within the room; it looks like he took down the bookshelf behind this wall when he was sent flying through it.

“It’s him. He’s out cold.” I say, stepping into the room and looking around, then moving forward to kneel beside him. “Looks like his armor took a beating. Whatever hit him shattered one of his torso plates and shredded most of it off of him.”

“If his armor was damaged, then he was probably struck with enough force to break bones beneath it.” Kwyn says, coming around me and kneeling as well, placing her hands on him. “I’ll check and see if there’s any damage that needs to be repaired right away. Can’t do anything complicated, but I can triage if there’s internal bleeding.”

“You know, maybe it’s just me, but is anyone else thinking we can just set this place on fire and call it a day?” Onslaught says, snagging one of the books off the surviving shelf as she steps into the room. “There’s plenty of kindling here. Whole place would probably go up like matchbox if I dropped an incendiary in the right spot.”

Whisper uncloaks just inside the room, staring at Onslaught with a sort of weary disbelief. “Seriously? That’s your solution? Arson?”

Onslaught shrugs, tossing the book that she’d picked up. “I’m just saying, it would probably solve our problem. Set a room on fire, the whole place goes up in flames, and it probably kills both the Valiant and the Librarians. Two birds with one flaming stone.”

“We are not setting this place on fire.” Kwyn says sternly, her fingers glowing as they carefully rove over Ironfist’s midsection, checking for damage. “This Library will eat us alive if we try to do that. None of us would leave this place again.”

“C’mon, how bad could it be?” Onslaught scoffs. “Sure, they’ve got some monsters and some weird stuff, but we can fight our way through that. We’re CURSE! Elite Peacekeepers! Are you telling me we’re just gonna fold because some musty old bookkeepers got pissed off at us?”

“Those musty old bookkeepers probably have a lot of magical books at their disposal.” I point out. “There’s no telling what they could summon. If they have a giant metal centipede roaming around trying to kidnap intruders, they’ve probably got other things up their sleeves as well.”

“Oh magical books, I’m so terrified.” Onslaught says, rolling her eyes, before her attention settles on the many books scattered across the floor by Ironfist’s unplanned arrival in this room. One of them stands out from the others — it looks like it’s made of red glass, faintly luminous, like the one that was left behind in the other room when I defeated one of the Librarians. “If those books are really so powerful, you think we could steal them and take them back to the HQ? The arcanology department would probably have a field day—”

“Do not.” Nazka says coldly, hooking two fingers in the collar of Onslaught’s jacket, arresting the beginnings of her movement towards the glass book. “Any of the books that look like that, you do not touch them. They are dangerous, and Librarians will protect them at great cost. More importantly, you never steal books from a living Library. It will eventually send Librarians to retrieve the books — and the person that stole them.”

Onslaught gives Nazka a look as she slaps his hand off her collar. “Good grief, what are we dealing with, the mafia? You’re telling me these Library nerds are going to send people to come break our kneecaps if we take their books?”

“Not quite.” comes a voice from the other side of the room. Our attention immediately goes in that direction, finding that a man with long, silky white hair bound back in a loose ponytail has stepped into the room. While he’s in jeans and a hoodie, appearing unarmed, his hands are clasped behind his back, and the ease in his step leaves me unsettled. “We’re not that cru—”

The hiss of a plasma bolt interrupts him as it slams into his chest and knocks him back against the wall. It’s something that happens so suddenly that it leaves the rest of us in shock, or at least all of us except Onslaught, who’s holding the plasma pistol that fired the shot.

“What?” she says when we look at her incredulously. “You guys were whining and bitching about how dangerous this Library was, so I figured I’d take your word for it.”

“He didn’t have any weapons!” Kwyn protests. “We don’t even know if he’s one of the Librarians!”

“Oh c’mon, who else could he be, showing up like that?” Onslaught says, holstering her pistol as she crosses the room to where the man’s sitting back against the wall, breathing shallow as he gingerly touches his fingers to the scorched hole in his hoodie. “This should make one less Librarian we have to fight. Maybe we can squeeze the location of the Valiant out of him.”

“Onslaught—” Nazka begins in a cautioning tone.

“You just sit back and watch, Nazka. It’s what you do most the time anyway, getting the rest of us to do the dirty work while you sit behind a desk.” Onslaught says, waving off his warning as she bends down and grabs the Librarian by his hoodie, yanking him up and slamming him back against the wall. “Talk before you die, pretty boy. Where are the Valiant hiding in this stupid Library?”

“You shot me.” he pants in disbelief, still staring down at the scorch crater on his chest.

“Yeah, and I’ll do it again if you don’t give me answers.” she says, thumping him back against the wall again. “Where are you nerds hiding the Valiant? Don’t make me ask again; I don’t like repeating myself.”

He swallows hard as his eyes come up to Onslaught; I notice at that point that they’re an unnaturally bright shade of green. But he doesn’t seem like he’s entirely there; he looks like he’s seconds from slipping unconscious. “You… remind me of my first girlfriend.” he mumbles.

I wasn’t expecting that, and I don’t think Onslaught was either. “Oh. Well, thanks, I guess. Seems like you’ve got good taste in girls.” she says, loosening up her grip on his hoodie a little.

“I mean. You…” His hand comes up, quivering slightly, almost like he was reaching for her face. “Your eyes, they… they’re pretty, like hers…”

That seems to take Onslaught by surprise. She eases up the pressure she’s leaning on him, and in that moment, the Librarian grabs her chin and the back of her head with both hands, yanking them in opposite directions and snapping her neck on the spot.

The sudden switch from trembling fingers to broken neck takes all of us off guard; in a single second, my concern for the Librarian spins in the opposite direction as Onslaught’s body crumples to the floor. I rush back to my feet, taking my axe in hand, though Kwyn grabs my arm, trying to hold me back. “Dare! No!” she hisses.

The Librarian, on the other hand, is sliding back down the wall until he’s sitting on the floor again. “She was a crazy bitch, just like you.” he grunts, his breathing still shallow as if he was still struggling with being shot in the chest. “I ended up having to kill her too.”

“Whisper, do not!” Nazka growls, and I glance to the side to see that he’s grabbed her arm the same way Kwyn has grabbed mine to hold me back.

“He just killed one of our people!” Whisper snaps at him, halfway through drawing her sword. “We need to finish him off! Just look at him, we’ve got him on the ropes! He can’t even stand up!”

“Just because he looks injured and weak doesn't mean that he is.” Kwyn hisses. “That’s the mistake that Onslaught just made and it got her killed!”

“Wait, what’s happening to her?” I demand as Onslaught’s limp form starts to glow, patterns forming on the floor beneath it. I look to the Librarian, but he’s slumped back against the wall, one hand resting on his scorched chest, the other limply flopped across his legs, which are sprawled out to either side. “What are you doing to her?”

“Me? I’m doing nothing.” he mumbles, staring at me with half-closed eyes. “Didn’t they tell you what happens if you die in a Library?”

Rather than dignify the question with a response, I lurch forward and grab Onslaught’s foot, starting to drag her body away from him. I only manage to pull her back a couple feet before her limp form explodes into glowing pages, leaving my hand empty. I stagger backwards a few paces, the storm of pages filling the room briefly; and then they suddenly pull back in, zipping to the center of the pattern on the floor, forming a stack of glowing pages that eventually becomes one of the glass books we’ve seen scattered throughout the Library.

In the stunned silence to follow, I struggle to find my voice. “You… you turned her into a book.”

“I didn’t do that. The Library did that.” the Librarian says, wincing as he presses his hand against the scorch mark on his chest, a soft green glow emanating from his fingers. “That’s what happens to anyone that dies in a Library. You end up on the shelves.” He allows a moment for that to sink it, then goes on. “And I recommend that you and your people leave before the rest of my Librarians decide to further expand our catalogue.”

“Dare, we need to leave.” Kwyn says, grabbing my power armor and trying to pull me back again. “We need to get Ironfist and the rest of us out while we still can.”

“You’re not in any position to be making any threats.” Whisper snaps at the Librarian, having drawn her sword. “We could kill you. Turn you into a book, and do the same with your Librarians and the Valiant.”

The Librarian laughs at that; it doesn’t last too long, since it clearly hurts, but it’s still a thoroughly amused cackle. “Oh, is that so?” he coughs, his bemusement bleeding through into his words. “And tell me, what do you think most Librarians are?”

I tighten my grip on my axe, looking back to Nazka for guidance; I see that his grip on his cane is similarly white-knuckled. That he hasn’t said anything so far tells me that he’s giving the Librarian serious consideration, because if he could just struck him down and been done with it, he would’ve done so already. “What do we do, Nazka?”

“You leave.” the Librarian rasps, taking his free hand and thumping it against the wall behind him. It produces a hollow echo, something that seems to multiply around us and throughout the Library, an echoing clunk that seems to get deeper and more ominous as it reverberates through the depths of this labyrinth. The sound feels almost like something big slowly shifting into motion, wooden gears clicking together and locking into place. “Trifle with the Inkspell Library again, and we will add more than just one book to our collection.”

I look back towards the Librarian, then to Onslaught’s book on the floor, and move towards it; but the Librarian is ahead of me, holding out his hand. Onslaught’s book skids across the floor and into his waiting hand, and he folds it against his chest. “No. You don’t get to take this one home. This is the price of your freedom, your escape; your lesson and your warning all in one. This is what happens to those that vex a Library.”

“You’ve got the nerve—!” I snarl, raising my axe as I start to move towards him. But Kwyn darts in front of me, trying to push me back with both hands, and when that fails, she sets her shoulder to my chest, digging her feet in against the floor as she strains to keep me away from the Librarian.

“Dare, stop!” she grunts. “Listen to me! We need to leave!”

“He thinks he can just kill one of us, turn her into a book, keep her in here forever, and then tell us to walk away?” I seethe, Kwyn’s metal boots leaving scrapes across the wooden floor as I slowly push towards the Librarian. “I didn’t like Onslaught, but that crosses a line—”

“Axiom! Fall back, that is an order!” Nazka barks at me.

“You were the one that said we should do what we came here to do, even if things weren’t in our favor!” I snap at Nazka without looking around. “After we’ve lost someone is not the time to fold and run!”

“That’s not why he’s telling you to stop, Dare!” Kwyn says, pushing away from me and grabbing my helm, yanking it down so that I’m staring at her and not at the Librarian. “The Library is coming unanchored! I can sense it; Nazka can sense it. We don’t know where it’s going, but we’re going to be trapped here if we don’t leave now!”

“We will have no support, no backup, and wherever we end up, we may be waiting weeks for someone to come pick us up.” Nazka hisses. “I do not like this any more than you do, Axiom, but we need to salvage our team and leave. We have already lost one Peacekeeper and I will not risk losing more of them. The better part of valor is knowing when to retreat and preserve your forces so they can fight another day; I will not throw lives away unnecessarily. We are leaving, now.”

I grit my teeth; I don’t want to let this go. I don’t want to let this smarmy little bastard Librarian to get away with what he’s done. This whole place, the fact that people that die here get trapped here forever, is just wrong and I hate it. But I can’t evade Kwyn’s golden gaze, and I know she’s wordlessly asking me to do the right thing and back off this. Grinding my teeth, I look over her shoulder at the Librarian again.

He doesn’t look fazed in the slightest. “Stay if you want. I’d be happy to add another book to my collection.” he drawls, those unnaturally green eyes daring me to do the stupid thing.

It’s infuriating, because the way he’s slumped there, badly wounded, completely unarmed, barely able to move, he shouldn’t be as confident and fearless as he is. There’s complete impunity in his tone and posture, as if he’s the one in control of the situation, despite all of his disadvantages. And perhaps he is. Maybe that’s what is so aggravating: despite all of our equipment, our weapons, our power and numbers, we have lost control of this situation to a wounded, unarmed bookworm that probably couldn’t stand without help right now. I don’t understand how we got to this point, and it is absolutely infuriating.

“If I ever see you again, I’m putting this axe through your skull on sight.” I growl at him, taking a few steps back before finally turning away, and finally seeing what Kwyn was talking about. The walls, floors, and ceiling around us have started to take on a jittering shimmer, as if the structure was starting to phase out of existence. Nazka’s called up a bed of solid shadows beneath Ironfist, using it to stretcher him out of the room, and is just waiting for us to join him before he keeps moving. Though it grinds my gears to leave that Librarian alive, I lumber in that direction, only checking to make sure that Kwyn’s moving with me.

“The way back looks clear, no obstacles.” Whisper calls from the stairs, where she’s waiting for us. “We should probably pick up the pace, though. I don’t know what kind of timer we’re on.”

“We are coming.” Nazka says, limping rapidly towards her with Ironfist in tow. Around us, the rest of the Library is undergoing the same high-frequency shimmering, with creaking, wooden groans echoing through the atrium and up from the depths of the Library. My anger hasn’t subsided, but there is a growing trepidation as I realize that our situation is starting to look precarious.

We start back up the stairs, but it becomes clear that Nazka is struggling with his recent injuries. Even with his cane, it’s a bit of a process for him to get up them; I glance at Kwyn, and there’s an unspoken agreement in the look we exchange. Slinging my axe over my shoulder and securing it to the back of my suit, I walk up behind him. “Nazka, I’m sorry about this, but we’re on a bit of a time crunch. No disrespect, but I’m going to help speed you up here.” I say, picking him up and starting to march up the stairs with him.

“Hm. Very well, but you are not to mention this to anyone, except as needed on the written post-mission report.” he mutters, offering no resistance to my aid. The gurney of shadows follows at a corresponding pace as we make our way back up to the main floor, and from there, back the way we came. Along the way, I notice that where the dead voidbeast was laying, there’s now only a faint pattern on the floor and a glass book lying in the center of it; tempted as I am to grab it on the way past, I refrain from doing so. The last thing I want to deal with is getting a house call from one of these creepy Librarians.

“Should be mostly a straight shot from here, right?” Kwyn says as we pass back into the long study hall where we originally encountered the Valiant. “Straight through here, down the entry hall, and out the front doors?”

“Yeah, as far as I can te— ah!” Whisper answers from the front, then staggers a little, catching herself and looking down. The jittering, phasing floor beneath our feet is starting to vibrate at an even higher frequency, as if it was trying to oscillate itself out of existence. “The floor’s getting mushy!”

“That’s not good, keep moving, keep moving!” I order, barreling forward.

“I’ll try to stabilize the area around us.” Kwyn says from behind me, and moment later, a wide, pale circle appears, moving along the ground around us and tamping down the vibrations somewhat. Our footing becomes more sure with that, and we move into a sprint, passing back over the toppled and crushed shelves from earlier. Parts of the Library around us start flickering out of existence altogether, with a loud rattling starting up in the last stretch before the front doors.

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Whisper hisses as we near the open doorway.

“Less talk, more running.” Nazka grunts as he bounces in my arms.

“Easy to say for someone that’s being carried!” Whisper shoots back at him.

Bursting out through the front entrance, I don’t stop running right away, making sure I’ve gotten a good twenty or thirty feet from the Library before I start to slow down. Turning around, I set Nazka down so he can stand on his own, watching as the Library’s outline violently glitches around, semi-transparent and phasing through nearby buildings as if it was trying to rip itself out of the ground and go flying through the sky. It only gets more energetic until, all at once, it just phases out of existence, disappearing right before our eyes and leaving behind an empty space between the two buildings where it’d been situated. It’s only when it’s gone that I realize how startling silent it is, and that it’d been giving off a low-level, static hum as it had been glitching around.

“Well, shit.” Whisper sighs, running a hand through her hair. “They got away. Again.”

I stamp a foot, grinding the metal sole into the ground; now that we’re out of danger, my anger is coming back to me. We went into this with all the advantages, and came out of it with one less Peacekeeper and nothing to show for it. “Next time we see them…” I mutter.

“There will be time to dwell on our failures later.” Nazka says, leaning heavily on his cane as our support staff move to receive us. “For now, we pack up and return to the Justice. We will tend our wounds, take stock of the situation, and assess our options. I must bring the Administrator up to speed on this turn of events, and you all have after-action reports to write.”

He turns and starts back towards the APCs that brought us here, while a couple of the field medics filter around us to check on Ironfist while a hover-stretcher’s brought over. I do my best not to clench my fists, but after what we went through, it’s hard not to be frustrated. We came here looking for a fight, for an ambush and a victory, but it feels like the tables got turned on us. Instead of fighting, the Valiant had ducked and run, and we’d chased after them — straight into what turned out to be a labyrinthine trap. No matter what we did, no matter how hard we tried to bring them down, it seemed like the universe was determined to let them slip away time and time again.

“Dare?” A familiar voice and a hand on my arm brings my attention around to find Kwyn standing by me, looking up at me. “Are you okay?”

My helm folds back into the collar of my suit, and I open my mouth to give her some platitude about being fine, only to find nothing rolling off my tongue. After a moment, I take a deep breath and let it out in a long, slow breath. “…I’ve seen better days.” I admit, looking back at the empty space where the Library used to be. I had no special attachment to Onslaught, but losing her stung all the same. She was still a coworker and a comrade, even if she was a pain in the ass to deal with.

“C’mon.” Kwyn says gently. “Like Nazka said. Let’s pack up and head back to the ship. We can get some rest, then figure out what to do next.”

Even though I don’t want to yield to it, I know there’s sense in it. The Library’s gone, Onslaught’s dead, and no amount of pacing and sulking is going to change either fact. Taking another deep breath, I nod, turning to follow.

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get packed up and head back to the ship. We’ve got reports to put together.”