Alpha Strike: [An interstellar Weapon Platform’s Guide to being a Dungeon Core] (Book 2 title)

Hera stared down at Alpha from the central platform and smirked. “You must be the ‘Lord Protector’ I’ve been hearing so much about. I must say, I’m impressed, in a way. How long has it been since I’ve had my face slapped in such a manner? Why, I’m tempted to offer you a job. Unfortunately, you’ve been a thorn in my side for long enough.”

Alpha waved his bone-tipped tentacle in her direction. “I’d have to decline, anyway. I’ve already got a job, and the benefits are better than you could offer. Now, hand over the child, or I’ll do more to your face than slap it,” Alpha said, bringing both bones and turrets forward.

Hera glanced behind her toward the floating pup, then turned back to Alpha and smirked. “Her? Really? She’s the reason you’re here? Why you’ve been sticking your nose in my business? It seems my dear departed sister continues to hound me even in death. But the child will soon be of no use to me. I’m sure ones such as you and I can come to an ‘agreement’.” As she spoke, her face split into a wide-toothed grin.

“I’m not much for negotiating,” Alpha said. “I much prefer to settle things more… personally. That said, I’ll admit I’m in a bit of a bind. This place is awful, and I wouldn’t turn down a willing hand to get out. Tell you what, you tell me what you have to offer, and we’ll see what can be done.”

Hera paused. That… wasn’t the typical response she got from this type. This was unexpected. Though not unwelcomed. Hera’s grin grew wider, and she laughed. “Well, now, what a pleasant surprise. Awful, you say? Why yes, I believe you’re correct. More so than an outsider like yourself is probably aware. Tell me, ‘Alpha,’ what do you know of the Akh’lut?”

“The first I ever met was the little one behind you. Don’t know if she’s a good representation. She’s not much of a talker.” Alpha responded.

Hera blinked. Not much of a talker? She’d spent years trying to get the child to shut up! Athena once bombarded her for an entire week with questions regarding a particular hunting trophy in her mother’s office. It had once been their own mother, Athena’s grandmother’s, and Hera had always been a little jealous that the woman had passed it on to the meeker Metis rather than her, the real huntress.

Hera had tried several ways to shake the tiny child, but she had a knack for always finding her way back for more questions.

Hera shook her head free of the memory. “Interesting. It is rare to find one not corrupted by the common fables. The world outside, and even our elders, will tell you we’re the guardians of this land. That is a lie. This place is a prison, and we are our own jailkeepers. The Akh’lut elders claim it is for our safety; that, despite all our power, despite the Awakened Beast Union’s heavy-handed stance on hunting sapients, we must stay separated and hide. Some species are simply too valuable in the eyes of others, and the Akh’lut are a prime example.

So, we trap ourselves in this tiny place where the very land itself stifles us, eating away at our potential like some grand parasite. Few ever leave this place; only the strongest or bravest. They’re content with this life. Content with being stripped of what they could be. Content with being weaker, lesser… small. For what? So that someone who fancies themselves as a god can seal away a real one? Not me. No, I refuse.

I will take back what was stolen from me. I will rise above what this place would have me be! The Mistress has shown me how, and if the world needs to burn to do so, then so be it. “

With a wave of her hand, the bone pieces in Alpha’s tentacles shook, then slammed together. Alpha tried to pull them apart, but they held tight like a magnet and fused together. Alpha pulled away, and a moment later, a large sphere of bone floated in the air between the two.

She continued, “You ask what I have to offer you?

The answer is simple. Power.

True power, unconfined by the limits of mortal understanding and unrestrained by the will of others. So what do you say?” Hera threw her head back and laughed, her eyes wide and wild.

Alpha laughed alongside her just as loudly.

In the next instance, the ball of bone exploded into a thousand tiny chunks as the explosive charge Alpha had left inside as it fused detonated. Ultra-dense bone disintegrated under the intense heat and pressure of the tiny kelvinite charge, a design similar to the super-critical battery he’d used against the space squid but intended for this use instead of improvised on the spot.

It was a little expensive, but well worth the shock value alone.

Hera stared wide-eyed, mid-laugh. What had happened?! That had been dense Bonetaker armor, compressed with her own power! Several of the flying bone shards had hit her hard enough to activate her defensive artifacts, a thin, oily sheen appearing over her body where they struck.

Alpha’s voice cut through the slowly burning cloud of bone dust. “That’s a delightful story, lady. Interesting concept with a nice hook. You lost me there at the end, though. I’ll tell you the same thing I told your little friend with the orb. You don’t know real power. If that’s all you and your ‘Mistress’ offer, then I’ll have to decline. How about I make a counter instead? Surrender, release the child, and you can live long enough to face trial in Federation court. The laws are surprisingly… lenient for primitive worlds like this. Be a good little girl, and you might even find work. How about it?”

Hera’s grin slowly slipped into a frown. She shook her head. “I’m disappointed. For a moment there, I thought maybe we could come to an agreement. But it seems like you’re just like all the rest. No matter. If you want to play a storybook hero, I’ll gladly teach you what happens to heroes in real life. I don’t quite know what you are, but I’m sure you’ll make a fine zombie.”

Hera snapped her fingers, and her shadow, cast by the glow of the crystal behind her, extended outward, splitting into four parts and expanding. They stopped after a few meters, and four five-meter-tall armored zombies pushed their way out of her shadow, dripping darkness and black fog. The Four Hunters had once been the Akh’lut’s greatest warriors. But like time and this place did to everyone, they had become but shadows of their former selves. Now, they were literal shadows, shades, and by the grace of the Mistress, had regained some of their lost splendor.

Alpha stared at the newcomers, then addressed Hera. “You’ve made a small mistake, lady. I’m no hero. Far from it, in fact.”

Hera laughed, then smirked. “Oh? Then what are you, ‘Lord Protector’? Going to claim to be some great conqueror that none have heard of, as you did to Tuguslar?” she asked.

Alpha shrugged. “I mean, there that, sure. But more relevant to the matter at hand… I’m the distraction.”

Hera’s eyes went wide, and the core flickered behind her. She snapped around and caught a glimpse of a young human woman slicing through the smoking chains holding Athena in place with a glowing tooth dagger.

Before the blunt end of a monk’s spade slammed into her face.

Hera barely had time to raise her arms in that split second before the Spirit-reinforced weapon, swung by a snarling Artemis, sent her flying off the raised platform. The four shadowed zombies turned and roared, but the sound of thunder roared louder as Alpha fired the TAWP’s point defense turrets at their backs. All four went down, stunned but not heavily damaged, thanks to their thick armor.

Said thick armor didn’t help the first when 50 tons of war machine stepped on their back. The zombie was instantly crushed, his metal chest plate flattening into just a metal plate. What remained burst into black flames. The second fared only slightly better; as it stumbled to its feet, only to be blasted away as Alpha kicked it with a free leg. The giant zombie became a blur that slammed into, then through, the same wall Alpha had emerged from.

The third recovered enough to stand and charge Alpha, a large two-handed sword of darkness materializing in its hands. Alpha responded in the only reasonable way he could think of for the situation.

He picked up the fourth by the leg and proceeded to beat the third into the ground with his improvised club. 

Compared to the first two, this took a long time, as squishy biologicals, even giant ones in heavy armor, didn’t make the best of clubs. Alpha was nothing if not persistent, though, and by the time Hera recovered from Artemis’ blow, both Zombies were reduced to mushy piles of burning metal.

Alpha refused to think about how something mushy could burn. Biologicals were disgusting.

Hera’s hair, pristine and regal only a moment earlier, was now a disheveled mess, her stone-colored High Priestess robes blooded down the front and her nose crooked. She staggered to her feet and glared at Artemis.

“HOW?!”

Laughter like the chime of a bell filled the hall, and Jīshí pushed herself out of Alpha’s back.

“Did you forget where you are, fool? Of course they snuck up behind you. This close to the Heart, you would have to be far stronger to sense anything at all. It’s a hungry sponge, constantly absorbing the energy from the area, even with what little aura those here have. But then you should have already known that. Or have you grown complacent In the time you’ve been here?” she sneered at Hera as she explained.

Hera’s eyes snapped to Jīshí, and they widened. “You! Why are you here?!”

Jīshí spread her arms out and looked around before asking, “Why wouldn’t I be? This is my temple, after all.”

Artemis grinned maliciously and started walking toward Hera, twirling her spade. “Don’t touch her, Alpha. She’s mine,” she said, her smile more… primal than before.

Alpha pointed the burning limb toward Hera. “Last chance, lady. Surrender peacefully, and I can guarantee your life till such time you can be brought to trial. Or we can do this the hard way, and I let the scary lady have her way with you.”

Hera snarled with bloodstained teeth, red eyes flicking between a grinning Artemis and Alpha, the burning leg of one of the most powerful zombies she’d ever created still clutched in his grip. “Do you think you’ve won?!” she asked. “You think you can stop me?! You don’t know the depths or the heights the Mistress has shown me!”

As she spoke, she threw out her arms to either side.

Her shadow exploded outward, splitting into 9, then 18, then finally three dozen writhing lines of shadows. In one motion, each shadow straightened, and figures pushed their way out of the ground. Artemis snarled and lept into the air toward her.

Alpha pointed his turrets at the figures as they emerged. “The hard way it is!”

——————————

The Slatewalkers had stayed together, for the most part, trusting the Scions and Artemis’ elites to handle themselves. Cultists were a lot easier to deal with than endless undead, more so when caught off guard like these had. There was no telling what awaited them deeper in the temple, though, so they had stuck as a group and followed the rough trail Alpha had left in his wake as he chased after the Bone construct.

Only after an ambush by a group of cultists who’d gathered together had Zolzaya become separated from the rest of the Slatewalkers. It would have been a death sentence for anyone else of her level, but her gift gave her a distinct advantage in avoiding the cultists. After escaping her pursuers, she’d winded her way through the mazelike temple, attempting to reconnect with the others, using her gift to track them.

Her path had brought her through the main chamber shortly after Alpha had burst through the wall. As expected of the Lord Protector, he’d noticed her right away, though the large woman near the giant floating crystal in the center of the room seemed oblivious. That’s when Zolzaya saw her. The young Akh’lut she recognized from what felt like a lifetime ago, floating near the giant crystal, a thin beam of light connecting them.

Zolzaya crept closer and observed the child, not liking what she saw. The child’s fur was dull, and their skull was slightly hollow, as if she’d not been eating. Every movement of black, smoke-like chains surrounding her elicited a soft whimper in her sleep. Zolzaya’s gift told a similar story of the child’s condition; the fear, pain, and sadness spoke of some unknown nightmare the child couldn’t escape from.

The crystal the beam of light attached her to wasn’t looking much better. Zolzaya could tell that, at one time, it had been a sight of wonder, filled with a rainbow radiance that reminded her of the prairies. Now, the light was dim and flickering, pushed back but murky lines of pulsing darkness. Like veins… or roots. It had even started to crack in places, as if being pushed outward from something inside.

She’d touched the beam of light connecting the two, only to yelp and pull back silently. In that brief moment of contact, her Spirit energy had been drained by a significant amount. Was it draining the child as well? Why? What was the large, ranting woman trying to accomplish?

Zolzaya’s heart beat harder. She knew she had to help, but she didn’t know how.

That’s when she felt something warm at her side. A warmth that soon turned into a blazing heat. Zolzaya reached down and pulled Artemis’ dagger from its sheath. It was glowing. She’d used the artifact several times during the previous fight, both on their push toward the library and the fight in the temple. It may have appeared little more than a tooth of some great beast fashioned into a dagger, but it was exceedingly durable and sharp enough to punch through even the armored undead. Yet, it had never done this.

Why now? What was it reacting to? The darkness? The crystal? The child? Had Artemis known when she’d passed the dagger along? No, she couldn’t have had. They had no idea what they were walking into. More questions than she had answers for filled Zolzaya’s mind. She stared down at the glowing dagger and back toward the smoky chains, then toward the large woman.

Should she risk it? The others had been right. This wasn’t a story. As much as it frustrated her, their short time on this assault had drilled a fundamental truth into her. She wasn’t ready. Seeing what the others could do: her father, Artemis, Ulagan, even that bastard Mönkhkhan. They were so far beyond her; she wondered if her presence here was more of a hindrance than anything. This hadn’t been a fight she was ready for. Not yet.

//If you’re going to do it, you better hurry. I can’t keep this lady talking forever.//

Zolzaya jerked at the voice and turned her head to see one of Alpha’s small metal insects alighting on her shoulder. She stared at the wasp-like creature, then back at the chain-wrapped child, her hand tightening around the dagger’s grip.

That’s right… she wasn’t ready. But she also wasn’t alone. She didn’t have to do everything. Like Artemis had told her, she only had to do what she could.

Her resolve set, Zolzaya inched closer and brought the glowing dagger down. The smoke chains weren’t so much cut as they parted, like bright beams of sunlight parting the early morning mist. She broke one chain, then another, and the remaining chains warbled and broke apart by the third. The beam of light connecting the Akh’lut pup to the crystal snapped, and she fell into Zolzaya’s arms, nearly crushing her.

Hera noticed instantly and whipped around. Zolzaya’s heart lept into her chest. She couldn’t run and carry the child at the same time. Lucky for her, she didn’t have to. At the next instance, Artemis appeared beside her and struck the much larger woman, sending her flying. Artemis turned and looked down at Zolzaya, or rather the pup in her arms. The pain and gloom visible on her face were reflected by the deep sorrow Zolzaya’s gift felt radiating from the woman.

Her eyes met Zolzaya’s, and the woman spoke only a single word; “Go!”

Zolzaya didn’t need to be told twice. She nodded and stood, racing for the other side of the chamber.

A few moments later, Zolzaya collapsed against the wall, panting, the not-so-little pup clutched in her arms. As small as the Akh’lut pup seemed compared to the titans classing only a short distance away, she was still nearly as bit as Zolzaya. Even if the young Grassreader was newly [Iron Body], she hadn’t had the chance to fully adapt to her new strength yet, and the pup was quite heavy. Nonetheless, she had gotten a respectful distance from the center of the room before the fighting started.

She doubted she would have made it very far without the Lord Protector or Artemis distracting the large woman, though. Now, the question was only what did she do from here? Staying in the room was dangerous. But at the same time, with their two strongest fighters here, it might very well be the safest place as well.

As she pondered what to do, a large hand gripped her shoulder from behind, and Zolzaya froze.