Ravens of Eternity

152 The Flow of Blood, Pt “Let’s go!” yelled Severas.

She raised her blade high in the air and charged in towards the compound gates. Right behind her was Eva, blades drawn and ready for more.

Behind her was the mass of Justicars and Security Force personnel, all of whom had run up and helped them mop up the remaining terrorists at the blockade. They all followed the Silver Justicar into the fight with determination etched on their faces.

And as they passed through the broken and mangled gate, they saw the chaos in front of them.

Teams of Guards and Federation combatants faced off against reams of Chosen. All of the Drogar were armed with knives of various length, while the humans were armed with various batons and sticks they happened to pick up.

All of them were banged up, bruised, cut, and bleeding. Or dead.

And it was clear that many of the Chosen were in rough physical shape. A number weren’t just overweight, but their athletic abilities lacked severely. Though many were physically strong, their stamina was relatively low. Most didn’t have either to further them – only anger.

In comparison, weeks of training had helped both the Federation and the Guards stay in prime shape, in spite of having absolutely nothing to do. More than that, it formed a bond between the prisoners and their guards. They grew to actually become protective over each other.

As a result, they were quick to come to each other’s aid.

.....

Two of the Federation combatants picked up some of the rifles that the Chosen had dropped. They wielded them like clubs and charged at a terrorist that was in a knife fight with a Guard.

The two of them smashed into his lower back and sides in a sudden attack that rendered the terrorist completely surprised. And also in pain – ballistic armor had little effect on blunt force.

He screamed as each strike fell on him, and stumbled around as the two humans beat him one after the other.

Their Guard friend quickly leapt into the fray, grabbed the terrorist, and threw him with devastating force onto the ground. His neck made a sickening CRUNCH as he landed on the hard soil below.

Close by, a group of three Chosen advanced on a group of four – two humans and two Drogar. Their eyes were filled with murder as their blades glinted under the sunlight.

The three ignored the two humans and quickly overwhelmed the two Guards instead. They were able to cut the two Guards apart with simultaneous flanking attacks.

By the time the two humans had found and picked up their own weapons, one of the Guards was already dead, and the other was being stabbed and cut to pieces. Once he fell, they all turned towards the humans with evil grins plastered on their faces.

It wasn’t long until those two humans met the same fate as their Drogar friends, and found themselves stabbed over and over until there was nothing left for them to feel.

All of the Justicar were aghast at what they were seeing – not just the clear breach of law, but the sheer murderous brutality that the Chosen exhibited. And of the sheer amount of dead that now spilled on Taloren soil.

They had all experienced some degree of the terrorist’s actions in previous weeks. None were quite as violent as this. Many instinctively gripped their blades tighter.

“Gods-dammit,” cursed a Justicar, “what in heavens do we do now? We can’t fire into that crowd – they’re all mixed together!”

“We just charge in and take them apart!” replied Severas. “Now’s our chance to eradicate these blasted terrorists! Once and for goddamned all!”

Severas and Eva took no time and charged right into the enemy, their dances filled with death at every step.

The Security Forces watched with awe as the two of them cut down Chosen after Chosen.

But not for long.

The other Justicars raised their blades in the air and yelled as they too charged into the fight. The Security Force personnel ran in right behind and cried out as they drew their beltknives.

Many of them crashed into the enemy rear line with astounding force and immediately began cutting down one terrorist after another. Others were met with powerful counter charges where they took on as many casualties as their quarry. Not that it mattered, in only a few short moments, they were all locked in melee and swiped at each other with razor-sharp blades.

The field descended into utter chaos for the terrorists as they were pressed on both sides of the fight.

Guards and Feds and Scythe Drones and Security Forces and Justicar and Ra’ventrii – all cutting the terrorists to pieces, from every direction possible.

On the other side of the fighting, Miko ran right behind her cottonball drones, which held Doleth and Colviss in their antigrav fields. Miko dodged blades and sticks as she sped out of the fighting, as did her drones. The last thing either of the Drogar needed was more wounds.

All of them rushed towards the field clinic as fast as possible, without jarring Doleth too much. Her constantly dripping blood practically left a trail from the front all the way to the rear, and into the clinic.

The cottonball drones set both down carefully on open medical pads, which quickly worked to absorb any blood either lost.

Though mostly, it was Doleth. It was clear that her energy was at the absolute minimum, and was on the verge between life and death.

She was quickly attended to by a medic, who immediately attempted to remove her armor, but had no idea how to. He was used to the Guards’ armor loadout, which was far easier to disassemble and get around. Justicar power armor was way beyond him.

The medic looked over at Miko, eyes desperate and words fast and to the point.

“Her armor’s in the way,” he said. “Do you know how it works? Can you help me take it off?”

“Leave it to me,” said Miko. “I hope that this is not illegal to do.”

She waved her baton at Doleth and hacked into her power armor. She quickly overpowered its meager security intelligence, then set her armor to maintenance mode. With a few strong CLICKS, the armor unlocked its many parts and set itself free.

Miko and the medic both quickly removed sections of her armor until her left arm and her stomach were easily accessible.

Right afterwards, the medic filled Doleth with stimulants via a disposable MedNject. Though it didn’t stop her from bleeding out, it did keep her heart beating. Perhaps a little longer than it could have normally.

The medic took no time in calibrating a MedGun for the Justicar, and laid down a thick regeneration gel around and over her wounds. The gel seeped into her body and immediately created pseudo-scabs and stopped most of her bleeding – at least on the outside.

She was still incredibly weak from the massive amounts of blood she had lost, and was still losing internally.

Worse, her breathing became short and fast, as though she was suffocating.

Alarmed by the sudden change, the medic quickly slipped a thick metallic band around Doleth’s upper arm, and strapped it down manually. He pulled up a small datapad from his kit and connected to the Infusion Band.

He located one of Doleth’s veins, then set an injection point on his screen. Doleth groaned in pain lightly when the armband inserted its needle into her arm.

Blood filled the tube it was attached to, which was pumped from a small filtration device attached to the medical pad. Basically, some of Doleth’s own blood was cleaned up and pumped back into her.

But that wasn’t enough.

The medic pulled a small but heavy transparent cylinder from within his medical bag and inserted it into a slot on the medical pad. The highly compressed blood pack was opened up, and many liters of blood rushed out into the medical pad.

From there, it was put through the filter, where it was infused with oxygen and rewritten to match Doleth’s exact blood type and characteristics. Then it was introduced into her system intravenously.

As this happened, the medic switched his datapad to display Doleth’s statistics and watched as her body fought to live with every moment that passed.

—

Condition: Unstable

Afflictions: acidosis, hemorrhaging (multiple: internal, external), lacerations (internal, external), tachycardia, tachypnea

Metabolics: 57%

BPM: 103

—

Doleth gasped awake, then clutched at her stomach in pain. But the medic was quick to hold her down.

“Easy,” he told her.

She did her best to calm herself down, but all she could feel was her heart thundering in her chest. Eventually, her breathing and her heartbeat settled down as the infusion of blood filled her body with much needed oxygen.

“Alright, now we get to putting you back together,” said the medic. “You want any painkillers?”

Doleth was still kind of sluggish and her wits were still far from catching up. It was as though she was in a permanent state of just being slightly awake. But she definitely felt pain in her stomach, and didn’t hesitate to nod in response.

The medic brought up his datapad once again, but this time hovered over Doleth’s stomach. There he had the nanites within the gel recreate some of that same gel into refined opiates.

They were sent directly into her bloodstream, and immediately numbed the pain around her lacerations.

Then, the nanites got to work. Just with the painkillers, they began to transform the gel into bone and blood and flesh and scale, bit by bit.

As Doleth’s wounds were stitched together, and more blood entered her system, her wits eventually returned as well. Well, slightly impaired by the painkillers in her bloodstream anyway.

She turned towards both Miko and the medic, and smiled at the two of them.

“Thanks for saving me,” she said.

Then her head turned the other way, and saw Colviss’ unconscious body lying in the medical pad beside her.

“Why’s she still alive?” she groaned. “She needs to be executed immediately, for violating the Justicars’ sacred oaths!”

“I do not feel right doing so,” said Miko.

“But you’ve got all those insane weapons! You could obliterate her in a flash! Just like all those pirates you killed!”

“Nn. I could. But it is not me she has wronged. It is the Justicars, and you – they should be the ones to decide.”

Miko perked her head to the side as she thought about it some more.

“Additionally,” she continued, “I am not wielding any weapons.”

Doleth was astounded with Miko’s words. The devices she had made were clearly potent and lethal! She obviously made them to be that way, right?

“But, the sheer energy output of that ball,” muttered Doleth. “And your drones! They were able to maneuver in a combat scenario! Don’t tell me they aren’t weapons.”

Miko shook her head.

“I did not intend them to be weapons,” she said. “I was simply having fun making them.”

Like the Admiral, she found the act of creation therapeutic. Even in her old life – she was always the kind to build little things. But unlike the Admiral, she wasn’t solely focused on making devices meant to destroy.

She just liked putting things together for no reason at all, an act she called ‘doodling’.

Miko gestured at her two cottonball birds.

“I made these because they’re SO cute!” she continued. “Also they can get stuff for me on the high shelves.”

.....

Then she held up her glowing baton.

“This because I like to play with terminals remotely. I can be a little lazy sometimes.”

Finally she produced her armorscale ball from inside her messenger bag.

“And this because it felt really nice to make,” she said. “Mentally satisfying, similar to snapping together plastic building blocks. I tend to fidget with it sometimes – an act which I truly enjoy. I cannot explain why.”

Doleth was even more flabbergasted, and her mouth hung open.

“Y-you beat a Reborn Justicar,” she stammered, “...with toys?”

Miko scrunched her nose at the word ‘toys’. The word itself implied some level of immaturity, and she was instantly put off by it. She opened her mouth to retort, but then she realized that Doleth was right.

She literally just toyed around with various electronics and put stuff together for fun. The only truly ‘serious’ thing she had helped create in the past four months was the Admiral’s shield.

Miko gave Doleth a short nod in agreement.

“Toys with no safety features,” she said. “The fun kind.”