They were down to eight warriors, T'sala, Maywil, Leana and himself by the time the train was a quarter way down the bridge. Alec whistled loudly and used his thoughts to activate the magnetic clinchers in his feet. Only he was able to move as if they were not headed down the track at impossible speeds. He saw a marvel in T'sala's eyes as he passed her in a burst of Aamaranth and put his back to hers. He locked elbows with her, and they began to spin like a human turret. With the impact suit on, Alec knew the speed he took would not harm her. With her Aamaranth blood, she could focus and aim as he did, in that bubble of slowed time.
She had switched to a revolver that Tusong had carried into battle but never used. It fired true and with a roar that held the dead warrior's spirit. The Mecha-soldiers that had made it onto the train all lay dead in their exoskeletons. As the metal suits they were welded into by flesh lost power, so did their magnetic hold on the train. They slid off the train, lifeless to the depths below. Maywil signalled the warriors and assisted Leana by her waist into the cart itself. Alec and T'sala ran along the roof. She laughed her golden laugh, and Alec felt his spirit soar. The first part, at least, while harrowing, had gone off to success.
They heard gunfire below them, and once in a while, a stray bullet pierced the roof near Alec and his Aamaranth companion. They moved in tandem with the speed of the soldiers below; sure enough, what Leana had said would happen did. A small group of defensive drones crawled over the top like a swarm of spiders, hungry for flesh. The drones did not host eight individual legs but rather clung to the train with inverted gravity generators. They did, however, host eight individual tools designed to address any type of pest, annoyance, or natural factor that negatively impacted the train. They were not a sentient thing but rather programmed to assess threats and respond accordingly.
Alec and T'sala did not move, holding their breath for an impossible amount of time. They let the swarm of tiny robots nearly envelop them before they moved. Attempting to pull them free would be futile; the magnets holding them down were as strong as the clinchers on their feet. The two set toward the back of the train, fuelled by Aamaranth. The bots burst after them in a wave, drawn to the energy they were giving off in Aamaranth blood and metal man form. The entire wave followed the two, ignoring the Teretha warriors that moved towards the engine car. They carried Leana's secret weapon, a townsfolk member who knew the codes and protocols to get them into the rift station.
The droids nearly had T'sala and Alec in grasp, pincers, blades and bits extended towards them, eager to rend flesh. T'sala reached down and disconnected her magnetic clinchers on her boots. Alec used a thought to disengage his own built-in ones and grabbed T'sala around the waist. He held her firm and felt his heart sing at the scent he associated with her intoxicating essence. He arched his back and sprang into the air, twisting like they were in a suspended dance. For a moment, they caught each other's eyes, and Alec could see the joy in T'sala's eyes. She loved the thrill of times and actions such as these. The droids of destruction, the train used as defence, passed underneath them and pivoted to follow their movement through the air.
Alec wasn't looking at the droids, despite being mere inches from his vitals. He focused instead on the clamp between the final train car and the connecting car. It was not his actions that mattered in this moment but hers. He spun her in his arms and clasped her back to his chest like another ballroom dance. In her arms, she cradled the bloodfire rifle, and T'sala fired with the Aamaranth focus she knew no end of. Alec had to admit he was jealous of that, no vial, no itch, no reserve mode. But then he reconsidered; being volatile simply by existing seemed a difficult hand to be dealt. T'sala played it well, though. The arc of purple blew the clamp free, and the cart with all the droids magnetically connected to it pitched backwards down the track. It met the tracks where they were disintegrating behind them and plummeted to the river below.
They landed like that with her held in his arms, and he could feel her giggling at the joy of success. He engaged his magnetic connection to the train as she looked over her shoulder for a sign of a job well done. Alec smiled in affirmation. She was one hell of a woman. He gripped her arms gently yet firmly enough that she did not falter in the high-speed winds and lowered her to the small railed area. The Teretha warrior left at the door opened it and pulled her in. Alec leaned down, gripped the top of the door and slid in.
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The door was closed behind him, and Alec looked around to see a large train cart packed to the brim with bags of a white, powdery flour-like substance. It smelled sweet and rich, full of sustenance. T'sala smelled it and wrinkled her nose.
"Not any good?" Alec asked her, taking in the expression.
"No Offworlder. When you grow up eating this for every meal, every day, it wears on the senses." She waved a hand dismissively. "No matter, we must get to the front; the others will need our assistance getting aboard."
She was right. And she was already on the move. Alec followed quickly to keep in step, as did the poor Teretha warrior who was many behind. The Teretha had done an excellent job of clearing the train. Most of the soldiers had been taken off on the roof; the ones that remained inside were hunched in various death positions where the Teretha had left them.
Up ahead, they saw the backs of the remaining warriors. Taking into account the few bodies they had seen, they were down to five Teretha warriors: Maywil and Leana. The last was clutching a dripping wound in her shoulder. In Leana's other hand, she was gripping a copper coloured cable that ran from the console to the dead soldier slumped against it. Her face was red in frustration, not pain, and she and Maywil seemed deep in a conversation. They looked up when Alec and T'sala drew near.
"I don't know what to tell you, Maywil. Things change. They can change so fast, and he's smart. He probably considered this." Leana's tone was tense, asking Maywil for understanding. "It is not a matter of choice but an inevitable solution."
"It is not an outcome I accept." Maywils' tone was stubborn, but her lips shook slightly. She was staring in disbelief at Leana and looking at the front control panel. Alec looked up, and a single mecha-soldier lay slumped in its exoskeleton, and around him, bullet holes riddled the cabin and control panel. Similar to Madam Zelsim's remote, the electronics smelled of freshly fired automatic weapons. Maywil's gun was still hot and lay discarded on the side. Both of her hands were on Lean's shoulders. Alec looked at the two, raising an eyebrow in question.
It was Leana who answered the unspoken question. "The train has a livewire lock that's blood coded to non-Teretha." Her hand on the wire gripped tighter, and Alec could see that the small wires that made up the larger cable had cut into her palm. "This one's no good anymore, stray bullet caught him in the head, the security protocol will know it's not live heart blood." She tried not to look at Maywil when Leana mentioned the stray bullets, but the gulp that Maywil gave was enough indication. The look was not one of condemnation but of loving resignation. T'sala placed one hand on each woman's shoulder and breathed a small, calming sigh. She had put the pieces together before Alec. It seemed he was still a stranger to the realms of emotions, but T'sala lived there.
The train had a switch that was coded to a blood type. A common installation in all of baronhood luxury vehicles, though not in the way it was currently being used. Usually, the allowed operators had a port that fed to a bio-connect cable. That's what the soldier must have been connected with. Leana was currently using her blood to 'hack' the system in the most unique use of biocomputing he had ever seen. What it meant for the end of the journey was what had brought Maywil and Leana to their current exchange. Alec was essential to the plan. They were picking up Doc at the end of the bridge, but he would be just as necessary in the future. That left Leana to stand here in this place so the train would run as it had every day, on time, always.
Just as essential as Alec and Doc were to the plan and every other Teretha and townsfolk down the line was one simple fact. The train needed to crash into the station, cause devastation and punch a hole wide enough for the rebel army to launch an offensive. Meanwhile, Alec and the small group would escape the train before impact and rush to the baron and the Rift-station to cut off any reinforcements. Leana was supposed to be a part of that group after guiding the train. This changed things, as she was now part of the train. Leana would be equally included in the devastation they required to move this plan forward. By the look on her face, Maywil was begging with any spirit, deity or power she could think of to change the inevitable, but Leana was right.
