Aetheral Space

Chapter 289:11.16: Blood Across The Battlefield (Part 2)

The mood on the bridge of the Tartarus was an unusual one. Tense and jubilant in equal measure. Alexandrius Toll, Ascendant-General of the Supremacy, found himself disliking it.

"How long until we can land our troops?" he gruffly asked the tiny girl next to him. "This is idiotic."

The girl in question glanced at her script before looking back up at him derisively. "Don’t be so impatient, you war-horse. The rules are clear. Only thirty minutes after the last Special Officer pod lands can you start bringing down your fodder. There are still twelve pods left to go with people that matter, so please be patient." She winked playfully. "Okay?"

Toll narrowed his eyes at the brat.

Dariah Todd Harlow. Alexandrius found himself disliking this woman more than most Special Officers, and he was not a fan of Special Officers. In front of her boss Caesar, this girl seemed a stuttering and blushing mess, but as soon as the Commissioner was gone, her true colors came out.

The colors of spite and envy, eager to abuse whatever authority she’d been given.

Alexandrius snorted, turning back to the screens before them. To be truthful, there wasn’t much to see. The fog covering the battlefield made imaging mostly useless, and Caesar had denied permission to place cameras on the landing Officers.

What a joke. This was not war. War required soldiers, and all the soldiers -- the trained and seasoned soldiers -- were stuck up here with him. The people running around on the ground were not soldiers: they were children, running around with swords and guns.

But they would learn. In good time, they would learn.

"The person using this fog is quite extraordinary, yes," breathed a voice uncomfortably close to his ear. "Interesting, interesting. Such range, while operating a second ability? I find myself fascinated. Perhaps a live capture is possible?"

Alexandrius turned to look at the man who had spoken. This time, he did not have to look down, but that was not because the person was the same height as him. No, definitely not: it was because they were floating.

Mandrus Hark, Section Chief of the Absurd Weapons Lab, was a fairly unfortunate sort of Scurrant. He had the normal number of limbs, the normal amount of eyes, and overall a human shape unmarred by deformity or enhancement. Yes, there was no problem with his shape. The problem was with his size.

All in all, standing on the tips of his toes, Hark would have been the height of a normal human thumb. It would have been only so easy to crush him underfoot. To avoid such an embarrassing assassination, the Section Chief had strapped himself into a hovering pod that floated freely through the air. Right now, that pod bobbed up and down next to Alexandrius Toll, the tiny man leaning forward in his seat.

A shock of spiky black hair, as if he’d been electrocuted once and never bothered to fix it. A pair of goggles, magnifying his eyes so they looked like those of some unsightly insect. A white lab coat wrapped tightly around his fragile body. A bulky speaker attached to his back, with a microphone winding towards his mouth -- so his voice could be heard clearly by those around him.

All in all, Mandrus Hark was something of a disgrace to look at.

Those magnified eyes turned down to look at the tiny black band wrapped around his wrist. "Yes, yes," he muttered. "Now that I consider it, it’d be a waste to lose so many potential test subjects. Abilities clashing like this, in the field, in such numbers, is a rare thing. An exceedingly valuable thing. There’s no reason to lose samples so willy-nillily. Caravan dear, perhaps we can introduce a point bonus for live capture?"

"You idiot!" the tiny ribbon chirped back. "You don’t have the authority to make those kinds of rule changes! Go jerk yourself off, asshole!"

Hark clicked his tongue. "Drat."

The Absurd Weapons Lab was another organization that Toll did not entirely approve of. Like the Special Officers Commission, they operated as they liked, without care or consideration for the proper chain of command. They were more like some kind of ascetic retreat than a scientific institute, sequestering themselves off from the world and only coming into contact to pass over finished experiments or participate in events like these. Hell, the only reason they were here now was because of the secret weapon being kept down in the hold.

If it was up to Toll, that joke of a Lab would be gutted and put under direct control of the military as a re

Esmeralda looked at him with those cold green eyes. "This…" he said. "...is Heartbeat Freedom." His very words echoed and reverberated through the ambient Aether.

Muzazi could sense it instinctively. He could sense that whatever power he’d seen from this man previously didn’t even compare to what was standing in front of him. This was a monster.

"I like your attitude, kid," Esmerelda intoned, looking down at him. "So I’m going to do my best not to kill you. Whether you survive intact or not… well, I can’t promise anything there."

Esmeralda took a single step forward -- and at the same time, the trees immediately surrounding him exploded into splinters.

Yes, Muzazi understood it instinctively.

I’m dead.

Zachariah Esmeralda had said he’d give Muzazi two minutes of his time.

It didn’t even take ten seconds.