Twenty-Five #2
Now I just need some distance, enough to make sure Rotwurm builds up a bit of momentum. A nice straight stretch of tunnel, perfect for a desperate sprint. After fifty meters I stop, reach into my satchel, and prepare to do the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in my life.
Starting now, I send to Star.
I don’t normally use the SOUND sigil much, apart from wiring a few to PERCEIVEs so that Star can have a sense of hearing.
Conventional wisdom says it’s not good for much else, but the new BLAST device has changed the rules.
The energy it generates takes the form of the associated noun—LIGHT, HEAT, and FORCE have all been effective, so it follows that SOUND ought to work, too.
The little device doesn’t look like much. I didn’t have time to build proper housings, so the sigil components are just tied together with threading wire and shoved in a leather sack. I reach out to the BLAST and activate it, and there’s a half-second delay as the power builds. And then—
I can hear it even through the earmuffs, a warbling shriek that slides up and down the octaves from a twisted-metal whine down to a gut-churning rumble. It’s jaw-clenchingly unpleasant and very, very loud.
“Dinnertime, Rotty!” I shout inaudibly. “Come and get it!”
It doesn’t take long; that would draw anyone’s attention. I can’t hear but I can feel a heavy vibration through the floor, like a junkquake that goes on and on and on. I picture legs tearing into the smooth walls to push a massive body along, faster and faster—
It’s coming.
[Agreed.] Star’s sensors don’t shut down the way human ears do, so he can hear the clank and crunch of metal. [Analysis: moving quickly.]
My throat tightens. If Rotwurm is too fast, all bets are off, and I’m probably about to die.
It comes around the corner.
Like all Twisted it’s a mass of mismatched parts, but years of trial and error have produced something like recognizable features.
It has an actual head, with a half dozen misshapen optics and a dizzying collection of blades and cutters.
Behind that, its body widens like a bloated grub, sprouting many short legs to grip the tunnel walls and throw itself forward.
And it goes on and on, farther than I can see.
Rotwurm lets out a scree I can feel in my teeth and comes at me with terrifying speed.
Trying to fight something like that in any conventional sense would be ridiculous.
It would simply roll right over you, whatever weapon you used.
Even the biggest runics from Venci’s pit would be crushed.
I’d like to see Vripiai face up to this monster; I am certainly not going to try.
I drop the used-up BLAST and run, back up the tunnel toward where I left Ky and Star.
It’s gaining on me. Fuck. Too fast, too fast, too fast—
I pass where the two of them are waiting but I can’t stop, Rotwurm is only a few meters behind. I take a couple of blind turns, hoping to lose it, but the thing navigates its lair with the ease of long familiarity.
[Report: I am aboard near the tail. It appears not to have noticed.]
Start planting the BLASTS!
[Assessment: movement is difficult. At times its body scrapes the walls.]
Star—
[Reassurance: the first weapon is planted. Calm yourself, meat.]
That’s one part of the plan working as intended. Now it’s up to Ky, and she’d better move soon, because Rotwurm is only steps behind me. The weapons on its head reach out, blades spinning and slashing like a malformed meat grinder.
Then it stops, chunks of metal ripping from the walls as dozens of limbs strain to halt its enormous bulk. Once again I hear nothing, but with Rotwurm momentarily still I can feel the reverberation through my feet. Another SOUND-BLAST back the way we came.
[Warning: I nearly lost my grip.]
I wince. This would be so much easier if Ky could talk to Star, too. Or to me, for that matter. As it is we just have to hope we get the timing right.
Can you see the tail?
[Ambiguity: I can see the other end. More than a tail, it resembles—]
Rotwurm starts to move. It doesn’t turn around like I’d imagined, but rather simply reverses direction and accelerates back the way it came.
[—a second head], Star finishes. [Hypothesis: the Twisted is ambivalent as to its forward direction.]
Shit. That’s going to make this harder. Tell me when it starts getting close to Ky.
I have to reverse direction, too; ridiculously, I’m now chasing the multi-ton monster, which flees from me like I just said boo. I can’t afford to let it get too far away, or my own noisemaker might not be enough to get it to abandon its prey.
[Assessment: it is closing on Ky], Star sends from his perch on the monster. [Thirty seconds before she is ground to fine meat-paste.]
I count under my breath, pulling out another BLAST. Can’t cut it too fine—
Activating.
The brief delay gives me a heart-stopping moment of worry that the weapon is defective. Then it snarls its horrible discord, echoing and re-echoing down the narrow tunnels. My ears are starting to hurt, earmuffs or no.
Did it stop?
[Progress: yes. And I was not thrown off this time. Ky appears to have escaped.]
It’s all for nothing if you don’t plant the weapons. Keep working!
[Offense: I am capable of performing two tasks at once, you know. Three planted.]
The walls are shaking again. Rotwurm is coming back my way.
[Impressed: Ky pursues the enemy with vigor.]
She’d better. We need at least one more cycle to give Star enough time to get all the way to the head. I start running again as soon as Rotwurm comes into sight.
This is what I mean about the Twisted being stupid.
A human—even an animal—would quickly figure out that someone is playing games with them.
But Rotwurm isn’t, either. It isn’t a real thing at all, just a bag of murderous impulses and a crude network that responds to stimuli.
Give it the same stimulus and it responds the same way each time.
Of course, the timing has to be right. My chest is tight and stitches tear at my sides as I run. If Ky is too slow activating her next BLAST, this can all still go very wrong—
I feel the distant thump of the weapon, but the Twisted doesn’t stop. The whirling, shredding mass of limbs is only a few meters back.
Fuuuuck me.
Star!
[Difficulty: Ky set off her BLAST as instructed. Rotwurm has not halted.]
Yes, I can see that. Why not?
[Hypothesis: repeated detonations have damaged its aural sensors. I have noticed significant degradation in my own.]
Shit. Apparently runic sensors aren’t as immune to the sonic weapons as I’d originally hoped; we’d deafened the fucking thing. I throw myself around a tight turn, and Rotwurm slows a moment to follow, legs rippling along its length.
[Report: fourth weapon planted. That pause allowed Ky to approach closer.]
She’s still chasing it?
[Analysis: I believe she is trying to find another way to distract it.]
Shit shit shit. I tumble down a short slope, bladed limbs clanging off the wall just above me. We’re nearly finished—
[Report: final weapon planted. Ky attempts to engage with her sword.]
That’s the craziest fucking thing I’ve ever—
Rotwurm stops again, and I skid to a halt a few meters ahead of it.
[Update: Ky has severed a number of limbs from its rear head. If one can be said to be the rear—]
Get to her! We need to get clear!
[Progress: movement continues to be difficult—]
Star!
[Assessment: ow. Some damage sustained. I have reached the rear end.]
Get it following you!
[Sadness: you cruel, cruel taskmaster.]
You know the plan, you little shit. I’ll build you the best body you’ve ever had—
[Reassurance: relax, meat. I am leading it away.]
The end of Rotwurm close to me starts to move again, faster and faster. I jog after it, not wanting to get too close. Star, with his skittering speed, has an easier time keeping ahead of the monster—if we’d been able to spare him to be the decoy, this would have been so much easier—
Ky steps out from a side tunnel. She waves at me with her sword, and we shout at each other inaudibly. Rotwurm is out of sight around a curve; that’s probably far enough. (Unless we end up bringing the whole mountain down on top of us.) I hold up three fingers, then two. Then one.
Then I reach out and tug. The BLASTS retain their connection to my spirit. I can feel all five of them activate—nothing, for a couple of heartbeats—
Boom.
Suddenly I’m on my back, head cracking painfully on the tunnel floor.
Ky is flung against the wall. Orange light blooms ahead, tongues of flame licking around the curve of the tunnel.
I feel a wash of heat even through my armor, and pieces of scrap ping and rattle all around us.
The walls shudder, and my little joke about toppling the whole mountain no longer seems quite so funny.
I stop breathing for a moment, willing the colossal pile of junk to stay together.
It does. For now. I suck in air and scramble to my feet.
Is it dead?
[Unknown: I no longer possess functioning optics.]
Shit. Ky pulls her earmuffs off, and I do the same; I still can’t hear anything but a high-pitched ringing. I gesture down the tunnel. We move cautiously, ready to run.
Rotwurm’s front head is still intact, sagging against the side of the tunnel with all its blades extended. Beyond that its body is a blasted, twisted ruin, blown open from the inside like some horrible egg had hatched from within.
Lesson learned. Hit it hard enough, all at once, and you can kill anything.