Exiles in Arms: Night of the Necrotech

by Werner, C. L.

  Azaam licked her lips. Her breath came in short, excited gasps. There would be no escape for the watchmen. They were dead already, only too stupid to accept the fact.

  “I am afflicted!” Caracalla’s left skull howled suddenly. The right head echoed the cry.

  Sparks and smoke flashed from Caracalla’s hull. Azaam spun around, watching in shock as the creature flailed and thrashed in midair. A second bullet slammed into the overseer, and the witch could see the arcane energy swirling about the rune shot as it slammed home. She followed the bullet’s path back to its source, her face contorting when she saw three figures perched atop another cable car. The mercenary, the Toro, and the gun mage. She wasn’t sure what perverse twist of fate brought these three stumbling into Moritat’s plans for a third time, but as she reached up and touched the nub of her missing horn, she decided she was quite pleased to see the gun mage again.

  Then Azaam noticed the massive hand cannon in the man’s hand. As the barrel of the weapon flared and loosed its heavy-caliber shot, the witch observed that he wasn’t aiming at Caracalla as the gun mage had.

  He was shooting at her.

  Rutger aimed his hand cannon. He didn’t have the luxury of magic to give his bullets the extra punch needed to penetrate the hull of something like an iron lich. He’d heard those things weren’t easy to take down. Against flesh and blood, however, he reasoned he could be much more useful. He left the grisly machine to Taryn and fired at the witch.

  He thought he’d struck true, but then he saw the ring of arcane runes burning in the air around the hag. Her whole being had transformed, vaporizing into a red mist that possessed a vague semblance of her outline. Darker streaks in the cloud showed the hag’s veins, and a throbbing black knot indicated the blood-ridden phantom of her heart. There was no solidity about any of it; Rutger could almost imagine he saw his bullet flash harmlessly through the transmogrified witch.

  Then, in what seemed the wink of an eye, Azaam was restored to wrinkled grey flesh robed in red. She shrieked at the hovering monster, snarling a command at it. Taryn’s shots had damaged the machine; he could see where the enchanted bullets were corroding patches of the monster’s hull. The damage, however, was too slight to be perilous to the iron lich. The runes swirling about it shifted and contorted. Rutger grabbed hold of Taryn as she was reloading and pushed her behind one of Rex’s massive legs.

  He didn’t know what sort of magic the thing would unleash, but when Rutger realized its real purpose, he almost wished for some bolt of hellfire or storm of mephitic vapor. Their attack had given the watch a reprieve. The flying bonejacks that had been preparing to dive down and attack Parvolo’s men now turned and screamed up toward them.

  “Well, that worked better than expected,” Taryn said as she closed the breech of one magelock and hurriedly packed powder into the other. With the wind rocking the cable car, it took an impressive combination of concentration and coordination to manage such a feat.

  “At least we gave Parvolo some breathing room,” Rutger said. He looked up at Rex and ordered the Toro to loosen its hold on the cable. When the ’jack released its grip, the suspended car began to move again, slowly creeping along the line. He scowled at the car’s sluggish speed. It had not been designed to haul steamjacks on its roof.

  “Think we can get beyond that thing’s range of control?” Taryn asked as she finished loading the other magelock. When they’d decided on this plan, they hadn’t figured on a swarm of flying bonejacks in the mix.

  Rutger frowned, flipped open the breech of his hand cannon, and tossed out the spent cartridge. He was staring at the distance between the floating iron lich and the ships down in the channel, trying to translate that vertical elevation into horizontal range. He didn’t like the implication. The creature’s area of control looked to be far greater than that of the warcaster necrotech.

  “We stand a better chance of holding them off than Parvolo,” Rutger said, slamming a fresh bullet into his gun and snapping the breech shut. “The watch already has their hands full.”

  Considering that by his estimate, Parvolo didn’t have any chance at all once the Scavengers swooped down on him, Rutger appreciated how little reassurance there was in his words.

  The aerial bonejacks came shrieking up, their tattered wings of flayed skin beating at the air as the exhaust of their soul furnaces propelled them forward. Taryn leaned out from behind Rex’s leg, sighted down the barrel of her magelock, and hissed, “Rot,” focusing the word into an image, the image into a spell. Runes blazed into life around the barrel as the rune bullet went tearing down at the oncoming Scavengers. It slammed into the shoulder joining the wing to the hull of one of the monsters, its corrosive enchantment instantly sizzling and smoking as it melted through the black-iron plating. The stricken Scavenger managed a few more beats of its wing before the injured shoulder snapped. The severed wing went spinning away. The bonejack plummeted into the channel far below.

  The rest of the murderous flock ascended past the cable car, seeking the advantage of height before swooping down on their prey. Taryn held her remaining shot, waiting until the Scavengers made their dive. Ghastly sirens wailed as the bonejacks launched their attack, the terrifying screams escaping the glowing fires of their soul furnaces. Metal claws glistened in the rising sun, steel beaks gleamed, and skeletal wings snapped shut against metal hulls to speed their descent.

  Rutger snapped an order to Rex. The hulking warjack released its hold on the cable and swung about to repel the Scavengers. The Toro’s armored arm swatted across one of the hurtling machines, sending it spinning off through the air, gears and fragments of bone falling away from its crumpled hull. A second Scavenger stabbed its claws into Rex’s shoulder, its velocity punching the talons deep into the warjack’s armor plate. The thing snapped at the ’jack with its razored beak, sparks flashing as the sharp steel grated across the top of Rex’s head.

  The warjack reached a massive hand up, closing its fingers about the Scavenger’s metal neck. The tortured sound of twisting metal screeched above the din of battle as Rex wrenched the neck sideways and popped it from its socket. The Scavenger’s head flopped limp against its hull, held in place only by the bundles of cable and pipe leading back to its cortex and soul furnace. The bony jaws still snapped and gnashed, flailing about in a futile effort to bite the Toro.

  While Rex was attending to the second Scavenger, Rutger fired his hand cannon into the head of a third. The bullet shattered part of the machine’s skeletal jaw but did nothing to stem its downward descent. Letting the hand cannon dangle from his arm by the tether he’d looped about its grip, Rutger drew Jackknife and quickly thumbed its activation stud. The runeplate bolted into the sword blazed to life, casting an arcane light across the blade as the mercenary brought it slashing upward. The mechanikal sword raked across the side of the bonejack, severing cables, snapping wires, and cutting pipes. The pistons behind the monster’s leg fell away in a mangled confusion of savaged iron, the limb dangling uselessly from the Scavenger’s underside. The havoc wrought by Rutger’s sword deflected the bonejack’s dive, sending it hurtling past the cable car.

  Taryn, meanwhile, shifted her position, slipping behind the steam motor bolted to the roof of the car to provide impetus for the truck gripping the cable above. She wanted a better vantage to provide cover for Rutger, to keep the bonejacks from overwhelming him with numbers. While he lashed out at one of the monsters with his sword, the gun mage targeted a second Scavenger diving for him. It unfurled its wings and tried to change the angle of its descent. She sent a corrosive rune bullet slamming into it, her shot catching it at the vulnerable joint between wing and body.

  The stricken Scavenger didn’t plummet to the channel below. Instead it twisted about, powering down at the cable car. The bonejack crashed against the side of the carriage. Taryn flung her arms around the mast connecting the steam engine to the truck above, holding on as the entire car lurched. Her first thought was for Rutger, but her partne
r had managed to seize Rex’s leg, keeping himself upright by clinging to a piston shaft.

  Another of the bonejacks came swooping down at him with such single-mindedness that it was oblivious to the warjack towering over its intended prey. Rex’s fist smashed into the Scavenger as it dove within range, crumpling its hull and sending it spinning through the sky.

  The cable car lurched again, just as Taryn had started to release her hold on the mast. Flailing her arms, the magelocks slapping painfully against her body as they dangled by their tethers from her wrists, she scrabbled for any sort of purchase. She shouted with something like triumph when her clawing fingers caught the edge of the roof hatch leading down into the car below.

  Any feeling of triumph fled when the car bucked once more. From her precarious position, she could just arch her head over the edge of the car, which revealed why the car was behaving like an ill-tempered destrier. The second Scavenger she’d shot had managed to sink one of its claws into the steel carriage. The shudders and lurches plaguing the car were being inflicted by the monster’s efforts to turn itself around. She could see the thing trying to stab its other claw into the hull just above. It meant to climb up onto the roof.

  Taryn unhooked her gun belt with one hand, then looped it around both the handle of the roof hatch and her own leg. She pulled the belt tight, clenching her teeth as it pinched her flesh. Before releasing her handhold, she gave an experimental kick with her leg. The belt didn’t give so much as an inch. Even so, it took a forceful will to release her grip. The picture of her body pitching from the car and plummeting into the channel refused to leave her mind.

  “Rutger!” she shouted as she reloaded one of her magelocks. “We’ve picked up a passenger.”

  Taryn looked over at her partner. Both Rutger and Rex were trying to hold off a cluster of diving, snapping Scavengers. There wouldn’t be any help coming from that quarter for a time at least. The gun mage threw herself flat as another bonejack came swooping down at her. The monster sailed just past, the claws of its left leg scraping across the roof only a heartbeat away from Taryn’s face. She hurried to reload her weapon, resisting the impulse to look over her shoulder and see if the Scavenger was turning about to make another run.

  The car bucked again, this time with an entire series of rapid groans and shudders. Taryn leaned over the edge of the car. The Scavenger clinging to the side had abandoned its effort to climb straight up. It was instead scurrying up at an angle, like some mammoth insect. The glowing runes swirling about the thing told her the idea hadn’t originated in its own cortex.

  “Rot,” Taryn snarled at the bonejack as it clawed its way toward her. She waited until it raised one of its claws, then loosed her enchanted shot into the center of the pad-like black-iron paw. The corrosive shot melted into the metal, weakening the joints and breaking the control wires within. When the Scavenger brought its foot against the side of the car there was no strength behind its claws. Instead of stabbing into the carriage, they slapped uselessly against the steel surface. It flailed backward, dangling for an instant by the intact claw still embedded in the side of the car. Its hold, however, was more tenuous than the grip it had gained when it first slammed into the car. With a shriek of tearing metal, the skin of the carriage ripped open and the Scavenger was sent hurtling into the water hundreds of feet below.

  Taryn didn’t linger over the bonejack’s destruction. Twisting away from the edge, she reached for the gun belt binding her leg to the hatch. As she did, she saw one of the Scavengers diving down at her. It looked to be the same one that Rutger had struck earlier, one of its legs dangling useless from its underside. The other, however, was thrust forward, its claws splayed wide. Taryn forgot about unfastening the belt and rolled herself across the hatch. She cried out in agony as the twisted belt constricted around her leg and dug into her flesh.

  The painful tactic achieved its purpose, however. The Scavenger missed her in its swoop. This time the bonejack didn’t sail off to make another approach but stabbed its claw into the roof, arresting its momentum. Again, Taryn could see the enslaved souls spiraling around the flying horror as a malignant intellect guided it.

  She abandoned trying to unfasten the gun belt. Instead, she grabbed the knife in her boot and sawed at the twisted leather. Her eyes kept focused on the crippled bonejack. The thing turned about. Unable to support itself on its broken leg, it came hopping forward, flapping its wings to stay upright. Taryn sawed at the restraining belt. It was a race now, and not one she was likely to win.

  Just as the bonejack came leaping toward her, it was struck from the side. The blazing length of Jackknife sheared through its tattered pinions, raking down across its hull and its functioning leg. The monster crashed onto its side, flopping and flailing as it tried to squirm around and snap at its attacker. Rutger glared down at the thing. “I thought I killed you already,” he said and brought his sword cleaving down into the Scavenger’s skeletal head.

  “That was timely,” Taryn said. She finished cutting through the belt. Her leg felt as though a troll had used it for teething. It felt more like a lump of dead meat than a part of her body, her only sensation a numb tingling. Yet it responded when she wanted it to move and didn’t act like it wanted to give out on her.

  Not that she would let it.

  She turned her gaze skyward, but there was no sign of more Scavengers. She looked across at Rex. The only bonejack near him was the mangled machine with its claws sunk into the Toro’s shoulder. While she watched, the ’jack reached up and ripped the Scavenger free, tossing the wreckage into the sky.

  “They’re gone?” Taryn asked, almost unwilling to believe it.

  “We did good,” Rutger said. He pointed his sword toward the cable line running parallel to theirs. The car the Satyxis witch was perched on was in motion, moving to overtake them. Flying beside it, like some black seed drifting in the wind, was the morbid iron lich.

  And another half-dozen Scavengers.

  “We did good,” Rutger repeated, “but not good enough.”

  The Scavengers flew away from the witch’s car and sped toward the mercenaries. This time there wasn’t the long, steady climb that had allowed their enemies to take aim. The bonejacks wove and darted between one another, buzzing across each other’s path. If the first wave of Scavengers had been like a flock of vultures, the second behaved like a swarm of corpse flies, flitting about in deranged spirals and crazed parabolas.

  Beside him, Rutger heard Taryn hiss the word “seek.” Her magelock blazed with arcane energies, the symbols of her spell swirling about the muzzle. He saw one of the flying bonejacks jerk as the shot struck it, but the rune shot lacked the crippling potency of the iron rot she’d inflicted upon the other Scavengers. Taryn had gambled accuracy against penetration and lost her wager.

  “Keep behind Rex,” Rutger said. “Try to pick them off when they start their attack.” The gun mage nodded and crouched down behind the warjack’s enormous leg as she reloaded.

  The Scavengers dove in a concentrated swarm, all six of the machines descending in a hissing flock, darting in from every angle. Rutger caught one with a sweep of Jackknife, obliterating half its head only to nearly lose his own when a second bonejack flew past and tried to tear it off with its talons. Behind him, Rex was able to smash one of the Scavengers with a blow from its fist, swatting it out of the air as it dove at the Toro, but in doing so, Rex left itself open to the assault of two more. One swept past the warjack with such furious velocity that it ripped a shoulder plate free. The second landed on Rex’s back, trying to work its beak into its smokestack housing and get to the boiler.

  Before the Scavenger on Rex’s back could more than nip at the steel plates, Taryn shot it from below. This time she was free to use the corrosive shot she’d been hesitant to employ at range. Rutger wasn’t sure what she hit, but whatever it was had the Scavenger screeching in an almost living approximation of pain. The bonejack’s entire hull was quaking; foul black smoke billowed from
its underside.

  Taryn scrambled clear of the noxious smoke and the molten metal dripping from the damaged Scavenger. As soon as she exposed herself, however, the sixth bonejack came diving down, claws spread like a monstrous hawk. Rutger saw her peril before she did and leaped across the roof to strike at the Scavenger with his blazing sword. Again, the bonejack displayed a hideous degree of intelligence, veering off before it came into range of the blade.

  Taryn shouted a warning, seizing hold of Rutger’s legs and pulling him down as the bonejack he’d struck earlier came sweeping in. Its claws raked across the roof where Rutger had been standing. The Scavenger diving for Taryn had been bait to lure Rutger into the claws of its comrade. Rutger cursed the infernal cunning guiding the hellish machines. He glared across at the ghastly iron lich.

  “Here they come again,” he said. The two Scavengers were flying together now. Taryn aimed her remaining magelock. He watched in amazement as one of them fell into formation behind the other.

  “Save the shot and head for cover!” Rutger yelled. The two mercenaries threw themselves flat behind the bulk of the steam engine. They heard the frustrated snarls of the Scavengers as they hurtled past.

  At the same time, Rex had managed to tear the crippled Scavenger off its back and was flailing it at the remaining bonejacks. The Toro rotated its torso from one direction to the other, managing to keep the two Scavengers at bay.

  The other bonejacks formed a concentrated attack on the two mercenaries. With one diving down from either side, there was no chance to use the steam engine as cover. “Up!” Rutger shouted to Taryn. He was already in motion, jumping onto the framework of the mast and scrambling, hoping to put himself above the angle of the diving attack. The trick worked against the bonejack diving down from the left, and as it descended past the mast, Rutger lashed out with Jackknife. The blade tore through the upper half of the wing, all but cutting it completely free. What was left wasn’t enough to keep the thing airborne, however, and after it slammed against the roof of the cable car its momentum sent it sliding off into the channel below.