There was a bit of scattered applause and cheering, made weak by the small number of attendants. Confident gazes met each other as they considered the task before them.
Betsy opened her mouth to speak, but was stopped by a low rumbling and a slight vibration in the Furnace’s metal floor. Everyone turned toward the sound, which came from the southern part of the chamber.
“What was that?” Ethan asked.
No one answered. They listened as a deafening boom split open the man-made cavern.
Bits of stone and debris scattered out onto the floor, clattering as they fell over the room and everyone in attendance. A few people were thrown from their chairs while others leaped from them instinctively. Ethan was knocked down and a fist-sized chunk of earth slammed into his eye. Tera ducked under the table. The concussions of debris pounding the table above her threatened to blow out her auditory receivers.
Dust hung over the room once the percussion of destruction ceased. Ethan groaned a little as he felt the wound on his face. He heard several others making similar sounds, most of them outside the meeting room.
Tera remained under the table for a moment after the debris stopped falling, waiting and listening. The rebels all stayed still, anticipating what might come next while trying to see through the solid cloud of dust. When the silence went on for too long and Tera considered standing up, a loud pop ripped through the room, followed by several others. It took a few seconds for the I.I. woman to realize they were gunshots. She covered her head and stayed low.
Ethan’s uninjured eye went wide as he saw a couple of tracer rounds crash into the wall behind him. He shielded himself with his arm as he felt stone chips blown over his face. The gunfire filled his ears and caused his temples to throb like a bass drum.
Screams broke out, melding with the gunshots to create a melody of terror. Hundreds of footsteps surrounded the meeting room, coming from both the sundered wall and farther into the Furnace.
Ethan dared to look up and saw the attackers emerge from the hole in the wall, parting the dust as they marched forward. Most of them were bodyshells, white and pristine like a platoon of Stormtroopers. They advanced with almost robotic precision, their weapons raised and opening fire, despite being unable to see through the dust.
“They’ve found us!” Gauge shouted from somewhere among the chaos. “Fall back! Fall back!”
Tera scrambled from under the table, darting ahead of a pair of Council bodyshells before they could spot her. She tried to follow Gauge’s voice, who seemed to be moving away from the breach and deeper into the cavern. As she started to move, she spotted some familiar forms weaving between the Council soldiers.
Shedders, she realized.
Just as she recognized the cultists and spotted the guns they carried, a loud pounding sound came from the breach in the wall. She stopped for a moment when she caught the source of the commotion through the dust haze. Her jaw dropped as the form became clearer.
It was shaped like a human — at least, the top half was. The bottom half of the creature was composed of eight spider-like legs made of jet black metal. Each step made a terrible clacking sound on the Furnace’s floor.
Though it took the form of a man, it was at least four times larger. It seemed to be composed of a few different humans, its flesh made of different shades of pale, sewn together like some grotesque Frankenstein’s monster. It towered a good twelve feet above the other soldiers, it’s huge mouth locked in a permanent open-mouthed grin. A sickly purple tongue hung below a noseless face. Its eyes were solid black, like two pieces of charcoal.
It let out a guttural roar unlike anything Tera had heard a man make. With a heave of its enormous muscles, it swung its arm above the troops. At least, Tera thought it was an arm. As the creature swung a second time, a third time, winding its arm up like a baseball pitcher, Tera could see it was actually a gargantuan sword. It was wide, thick, and the point was flat like an executioner’s blade.
As the dust cleared to just a thin film, Tera saw another form emerge from the wall breach, its long robe flowing behind it. It was Reverend Nidus. He gazed over the scene with sick delight.
“Kill them all!” he barked to the attackers.
Raid
In the matter of an instant, the air within the Furnace erupted with gunfire, screams, and crashing metal and stone. A number of rebel soldiers flooded into the sundered conference room and started escorting those within out. Ethan stumbled a little, clutching onto his eye as a female bodyshell led the way. They passed Tera, but the rebel escort didn’t stop for a moment. Tera saw them in the corner of her vision. Turning away from Reverend Nidus and the cloud of death between them, she followed Ethan’s flight. In the blink of an eye, she was running beside him and their rebel escort, their feet pounding over the metal grate that was made up the floor.
Gunshots exploded all around them as the rebel soldiers who weren’t escorting someone opened fire on the attackers. Ethan dared a glance back and saw a white Council bodyshell collapse in a spurt of sparks. He wanted to cheer, but the appearance of the sword-armed behemoth stole any motivation to do so. Before he could look away, Ethan saw the monstrosity cut down two rebels in a single swing. Blood sprayed from one as his torso was freed from his waist, his entrails tangling with the wires of another felled rebel.
Tera pulled the E.M.P. blaster from its holster on her hip and aimed at the madness behind her. There was a flurry of white polymer and black metal, but she couldn’t get a good shot on the intruders. With her luck, she would hit one of
