Page 11 - gAIa — Advance excerpt

Marksmen were enhanced humanoid frames evolved from de-
molition bots, now serving as the heavy infantry and combat
engineers of the Astyarch Phylon.
The wind farm was guarded by machines of the enemy Phy-
lon, the Orothronids: those who claim the mountain peaks as
their thrones. Purist guardians of high elevation, they have al-
lowed the thin air and hard rock to shape their sacred doctrine
of exclusion for centuries after the Collapse.
On the perimeter of the wind farm, elite Orothronid snipers
stood guard. Tall, hoofed bipeds armored in matte white ce-

ramic, their crampon-like wrist extensions sunk into the rock
faces between the turbine columns. She had encountered the
Exalted Caste before. Now she watched one of them haul itself
up a granite seam with the precision of a mountain goat, before
locking still, long-bore rifle leveling toward the Astyarch rear-
guard at a far-off peak.
They’re amazing, she thought, and immediately regretted the
thought of admiring the enemy’s form like an evangelist of vio-
lence, even though the Astyarchs under her command had
herded the Orothronid defenders into a kill-box in a matter of
minutes.
The wind farm was secured. Objective achieved.
But then an Exalted Caste mech emerged unnoticed from be-
hind a wind turbine. Damaged, it anchored, hooves finding ice,
crampon tips driving in, body locking into evolutionary stillness.
It barely managed to raise its rifle. It looked shocked.
Her reticle held on it. Two point four seconds, and then a
Metropolitan Marksman’s Gauss round did what her order
hadn’t. The mech went down. The extraction formation closed
beneath her before the shot’s echo faded between the ridges.
The Octocopter turned back toward base, the mission already
complete behind her, and the Astyarch compound rose against
the ridge.

11

© Danis Dedes — Advance excerpt, not for redistribution!