Rhea spotted motion at the periphery of her vision, above. At the same time, Veil thrust and Rhea was forced to parry. She sidestepped, backing away quickly from Veil. She separated her palms and squeezed them into fists, transforming the Ban’Shar back into disks as she raised them over her head.
Plasma fire shot down from above and she deflected it back toward the source. A lucky redirect on her part, because a moment later a humanoid form dropped to the cave floor. It was a cyborg of some kind, with a human face glued to a robot body, just like Veil. A plasma rifle lay abandoned beside it, and a gooey cavity carved into its torso was sizzling. It didn’t get up.
Will was right, it had been a trap. Deceived by her foe yet again.
How could I be so naive?
But she knew how. She still trusted people. She only had memories leading back a few months at this point, to her birth outside Rust Town. It was in her nature to be naive.
“I’m roasting her ass,” Will announced.
Plasma fire from the Wardenites came in and Veil ducked behind a stalagmite. Rhea dove behind another rock as the Black Hands also opened fire. She pressed her back against it and protected her sides with the Ban’Shar.
She heard a rolling sound and knew what was coming.
She flicked one of her Ban’Shar upward as one the robots that had once been part of Veil vaulted over the stalagmite that shielded Rhea. It tried to impale her with those finger spikes, but the ends disintegrated as they slammed into her protective disk, leaving behind molten tips.
The Wardenites took out the robot before it hit the ground.
Rhea had only just lowered her Ban’Shar to protect against the incoming fire when she heard that rolling sound yet again—from the overlapping timbres, multiple robots approached. The energy bolts from the Black Hands were keeping her well pinned, and she didn’t dare risk raising them to defend against the robots, not even for a moment.
She made a split-second decision to rush Veil in that moment.
She left her cover, surprising the three incoming robots before they could leap. She swung her Ban’Shar back and forth, deflecting the Black Hands’ bombardment, and weaved between the robots. They lifted their hands, trying to deploy those spikes, but she sliced through them in rapid succession with her Ban’Shar.
In moments she rounded the stalagmite where Veil was taking cover, but the cyborg was ready, and stabbed upward with the plasma-coated blade, sliding it between her Ban’Shar disks.
Rhea was forced to twist her body to avoid it; Veil altered her swing subtly and severed one of Rhea’s hands. The Ban’Shar on it deactivated immediately, leaving her with only one.
Rhea was forced to retreat as Veil pressed the attack. Rhea had to constantly shift the weapon to deflect the attacks from Black Hands, while dodging Veil’s blows. Veil zigzagged randomly as she moved, so that even though she was in the open, the Wardenites couldn’t hit her. Rhea copied that tactic, and it helped her evade the shots from the Black Hands.
She turned away from Veil and ran toward a group of Black Hands who were hiding behind a nearby stalagmite. She leaped over it, swinging her remaining Ban’Shar down to protect herself, and then when she landed, she transformed it into a blade and sliced through all four of them with a single swing.
Then she ducked behind the stalagmite as more fire came in, and transformed the sword back into a shield. She peered past, searching for Veil.
The cyborg had been forced to take cover behind another nearby stalagmite, thanks to the Wardenites.
Rhea was about to rush her again when she noticed a sharp stalactite hanging down directly above Veil. Without thinking, she curled her weapon arm back and then rapidly extended it outward, toward the upper part of the stalactite. Via the remote interface, at the same time she loosened the buckle that held the weapon to her hand, and the disk flew off.
The motion drew Veil’s gaze, and she glanced toward the weapon in shock, raising her sword to defend. But it wasn’t meant for her, of course: the plasma disk smashed into the stalactite, cutting right thought it. The large piece plunged directly toward Veil.
The cyborg vaulted out of the way.
Rhea had already leaped onto the floor to scoop up her own severed hand; she doffed the Ban’Shar knuckles and slipped them onto her good hand, activating the weapon as a blade. She moved faster than she ever had, causing smoke to billow from her strained servomotors, and raised the plasma sword in time to meet Veil, who was only just landing after her leap to avoid the stalactite.
The enemy cyborg brought her gaze forward, but by then it was too late: Rhea’s blade was already plunging into Veil’s torso. Rhea lifted the sword at the same time, cutting a swathe through that body, damaging circuits and power supply lines throughout.
Veil slumped on the blade.
Rhea deactivated it and let Veil drop to the floor. She dragged her enemy behind the closest stalagmite.
She was forced to turn on the Ban’Shar in shield mode to protect herself when plasma fire came in from the side.
“Your master is dead,” Rhea shouted. “Run away now, and we might spare you.”
The shooting subsided on both sides. The Black Hands didn’t do anything for many seconds—Rhea was under the impression they were having some mental communication—and then they began to retreat beneath the still shining floodlights.
A Wardenite shot one of them in the back, but Rhea yelled: “Let them go!”
No one fired again.
Her eyes drifted to the broken stalactite. She didn’t know she could do that. Interesting.
She returned her attention to the unconscious Veil, and quickly removed the X2-59 equivalent the cyborg had strapped to her wrist and tossed it aside.
Veil’s eyes opened.
