Chapter V: The Archopolid

The room was overcome with panicked screaming, as people rushed for the exit. Ginger Halflance burst past Sir Margaret, who scowled at her before rapidly turning her attention to the hole in the wall, still obscured by dust and billowing soot. Lady Halflance wheeled around, scanning the entire room with incredible speed. Then she sprinted off, leaping over tables and going against the crowd to reach her daughter, struggling to escape. Suddenly, a horrible sound like a thousand clocks being wound emerged from the dust cloud, followed by what sounded like a chainsaw. With the sound of the chainsaw came more screams. A rain of bullets found their mark, tearing into the crowd. More shots rang out in response, as the surprisingly numerous armed members of the crowd opened fire randomly into the haze. Lady Halflance grabbed Felicia, pulling her down. Meanwhile, I leapt under a table and failed to avoid hyperventilating.

It wasn’t as if I could do much, at the time. I was unarmed, had never been in so much as a fight before, and whatever was attacking the ballroom clearly had a machine-gun at least. You can’t do anything against that! Suddenly, I felt a presence beside me.

“Well, this is a hell of a difficulty we’re having, aren’t we? Clever idea, using the tables to break line of sight instead of running away, very clever young lady,” said Sir Margaret, crouching next to me under the table.

“Why are you carrying a sword?” I said, fighting back tears. I needed something, anything to think about instead of what was happening outside of this table. This particular absurdity seemed a good place to look.

“Why would I not be carrying a sword? It seems like it’s about to come perfectly in handy, so I feel perfectly justified given the circumstances,” she responded.

“We’re at a dinner party!”

Sir Margaret gave a manic grin. “Well you’ve clearly never been to a dinner party in Amrinval!” She paused, looking up. “The gunfire has stopped, which means it is time for me to be off.” With that, she rushed out from under the table, leaving me to curl into the fetal position and cry a bit, while occasionally peeking out at what was happening. To tell you the truth, I didn’t catch most of it, but Sir Margaret told me enough of it later on for me to get a solid idea.

As the last of the partygoers were either cut down or taking cover, a stillness fell over the ballroom. Slowly, the cloud of dust settled, revealing the leering gaze of an Archopolid overlooking the ruined ballroom. In the chaos, dozens of tables had been overturned, structural beams of wood and iron shattered and scattered across the room, and the vast chandelier had come crashing to the ground. The Archopolid’s many eyes, compound lenses of selenium and dark-sensing thermal pins, scanned around the room for its programmed prey. The split jaw of the steel creature, whose purpose for an automaton powered by burning coal was a long-standing mystery among engineers, hung open in a hungry grimace, leaking embers and flickering tongues of flame.

Lady Halflance, having ensured the safety of her daughter, emerged from behind cover, pulling a small revolver from somewhere inside her shirt. No, I don’t know how she hid it there either. With excellent aim, she fired off five shots into the… I guess you could call it the face of the Archopolid. The popping reports of gunfire mixed with the cracking and snapping of broken eye-parts. The Archopolid turned its cumbersome head, sending off a burst of fire from the machine rifle crudely bolted to its head. Lady Halflance, for her part, jumped behind another table. Fortunately for her, there were several other people with guns around the room, some of whom were suicidally brave enough to use them. Archopolids aren’t designed for multitasking, and so are easily distracted, especially by people shooting them.

From there, she reloaded, circling around the room to meet up with her wife, who had been struggling to figure out how to kill that which literally cannot bleed. Unfortunately, neither one of them was an engineer. Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, I had stopped crying for long enough to take a peek from under the table. I saw someone near the edge of the room, clearly struggling. Her leg had been trapped under a beam when the wall was blown in by the big scary robot spider monster. I looked back up at the steel monster. It didn’t seem to be looking my way. I took a deep breath, in and out, knowing that I couldn’t leave her, whoever she was, trapped like that. Then I went for it, crawling as fast as I could on my hands and knees. The tables above me kept me in cover, as long as I avoided the ones that had gotten overturned.

It was about halfway there when I realized who it was. Lady Alonhall, the one with the very distracting pants. That didn’t matter now, because I wasn’t going to leave her helpless, no matter what. And then I started reconsidering when the tables ended. There was nothing between me and the pile of rubble keeping Lady Alonhall trapped but about 15 feet of open floor. Open floor being watched by a giant spider with a machine rifle. It was about then that I realized that I had been crawling towards it the entire time. I crept out, one arm in front of the other, one step and one motion at a time. Then, with a groaning sound, the Archopolid moved, one enormous spindly leg stepping forwards. At the same time, it turned to look right my way.

In a panic, I scrambled backwards, falling backwards and landing hard on my tailbone. A few terrified seconds later, I realized that I hadn’t been shot, somehow. That settled it then; a snail’s pace wasn’t going to cut it. Looking back at Joyce, who was seemed to have not noticed me, there was enough of a rubble pile there to hide me from the Archopolid. I got into a crouch, squeezed my eyes, and hoped for the best. Then I ran.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the room, the Halflances had come up with a plan. The Count reloaded her five shots, firing them off at the Archopolid’s joints, while Sir Margaret leapt out of cover and charged, serpentine, towards the machine. The plan worked for exactly as long as Lady Halflance’s ammunition, which was’t very long at all, because revolvers are like that. Sir Margaret dove behind cover once again, barely avoiding a spray of machine rifle fire. Lady Halflance needed a better distraction, and she needed it quickly.

“FIRE!” she barked, in a commanding tone. Sure enough, all of the armed party guests, many of them ex-army no doubt, took this as an order and emerged from cover. The next few seconds were a blaze of gunfire on both sides. By the time the people had regained their senses, Sir Margaret had been able to dash almost under the Archopolid’s bulky torso.

When I ran for Lady Alonhall, I was surprised by my own speed. I guessed, at the time, that it was because of how much smaller I was, which let me accelerate faster for my size. In fact, I nearly overshot Lady Alonhall entirely, skidding to a stop a couple feet past her.

“Emma, is that you? Amazing, I had no idea that you were such the heroic type.” I wasn’t really paying attention to what she said, being more focused on the beam on her. Fortunately, her leg was caught near the end of it.

“Okay, I’m going to try to lift this thing. When I say ‘three’, try to pull out your leg,” I said, trying to get a good grip on the underside of the beam.

“I’ll certainly do my best, Emma,” she said, grimacing.

“All right then… one, two, three!” I lifted as hard as I could, fingers painfully digging into the wood. I could feel the weight on Lady Alonhall’s leg lessening. But it wasn’t enough, and after a second or two I had to relent. Just then, the whole room erupted into gunfire. I looked up, just in time to see the bursts of dust and splinters scything across, cutting down several women in their wake. Dammit I was going to help at least one person!

I shifted my weight, putting my arms more fully under the beam, then pushed upwards with my entire body. Every muscle, every tendon burned with pain, and I could have sworn my bones were about to break. The beam moved. By the time I collapsed, Lady Alonhall was well out of the way.

“That was incredible… I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you,” she said, creeping closer to me and fluttering her eyelashes.

“Oh shut the hell up.” Suddenly, a single noise rang out, which dominated the entire room. With a voice like sand being ground between gears or the tearing of rotted wood, the Archopolid howled a single word.

“Halflance!” Shocked silence fell over the ballroom. This thing knew about her, and it knew who she was. Was it going after her? Seemed likely, given that it hadn’t said anyone else’s name. The next sound that came out of it, however, was a shrieking groan. The machine flailed about, enormous legs sweeping across the room and sending tables and people flying. The jaws split wide, lighting the whole room orange. Standing below the Archopolid was Sir Margaret, her sword jammed up to the hilt in a gap in the machine’s armor. Her manic grin had turned to one of triumph, as she had snuck under the thing during the gunfire and found a weak point. But that triumph didn’t last for very long.

As the Archopolid flailed around, one of its legs came sweeping towards Sir Margaret. She noticed it coming at the last moment, leaping out of the way. It was too late. The black iron beam hit her in the legs, sending her twisting through the air. She landed with a crunch.

“Wait, can this thing understand us?” I yelled into the room.

“No. No it cannot.” responded Lady Halflance. She popped out of cover for just a second, long enough to see her wife collapsed onto the floor. She ducked back behind the table, swearing profusely.

“I’m fine dear, perfectly fine,” said Sir Margaret. She grunted with pain as she lifted herself into a sitting position. “More to the point I think I have a good shot on a gap. That is, I would have a good shot if I had a gun, which I don’t. Does anyone have a gun?”

Lady Halflance closed her eyes, and considered. With the adrenaline of my rescuing Lady Alonhall beginning to wear off, i was starting to revert back to panic. I was about to watch people die, again. Even though I had only known them for a few hours, the Halflances had still been kind to me. I didn’t want to watch death again.

“I have a plan,” Lady Halflance announced, carefully enunciating each word. She reloaded her revolver again, flipping open the top and placing in her last five bullets. Then she stood up. “If you’re coming after me, then do it!” With that, she hurled the revolver towards Sir Margaret. The Archopolid opened fire. All around Lady Halflance, bursts of broken wood and stone erupted, peppering her with shrapnel. She ran, keeping just ahead of the hail of bullets, before taking cover behind the immense chandelier.

Meanwhile, the revolver which she had hurled clattered uselessly to the ground, ten feet or so away from Sir Margaret. She tried to shift around, and reached for it, but her weight moved wrong and she cried out from her still-broken leg. I realized what I had to do.

“I’ll grab the gun!” I said. I had to nearly scream to be heard over the sounds of the machine rifle.

“What?! You’ll be going right in front of that thing, it will kill you!” said Lady Halflance. The machine rifle was still firing, chewing through the glass and metal of the chandelier bit by bit. It was a miracle that it hadn’t been shot through already, and it would only be a matter of time.

“Don’t worry! I’m fast, I have this! Knowing me, if I die I’ll just wake up on another planet.” I did not have this at all, and I was probably going to die. But I did it anyway.

I went straight from my crouch into a sprint, aiming for the revolver lying on the floor. I had never been able to run this fast on Earth, which I guess was a perk of the new body. No time to think about that. I needed to focus on the gun, and also the blast of machine rifle bullets aimed at me. I was totally in the open, and the Archopolid had seen me. The wind off of the shots whipped past me. I was halfway there. Shards of broken marble floor stung against my skin, but I ignored the pain. The metal spider’s aim was getting more accurate, I could tell. I could swear that I was feeling the shots tearing into me. I could still keep going. I bent down, picking up the revolver by the cylinder. I had a vague understanding that this was unsafe. I tossed the gun in Sir Margaret’s direction, not having any time to check if she actually received it. Then time started to speed back up, as I dashed off towards the chandelier. When I reached the large cover, I had built up so much speed that I essentially skidded to a halt.

I took a couple seconds to catch my breath, sitting uncomfortably with the crystal of the chandelier in my back. Then I looked down. For a moment, the image of massive bullet wounds riddling my new body flashed in my head. But there was nothing. Sure, my clothes were a bit messed up from all of the shrapnel, but I was totally unhurt. The same could not be said for the Archopolid.

I turned to see Sir Margaret holding up the revolver, smoke pouring from the barrel, all five rounds exhausted. The Archopolid shuddered, smoke beginning to pour from its joints. It tried to turn towards Sir Margaret, but it ground to a halt with the sound of snapping metal and screeching metal. Then the thing keeled over, knocking down another wall in a pile of ruined metal and splintered wood.

Lady Halflance, upon realizing that the thing was dead, immediately got up and ran to her wife. She lifted Sir Margaret onto her shoulder, and started carrying her off.

“Thank you,” she said to me. “Thank you, you insane bastard.”

…

Apparently Amrinval did in fact have emergency services, as soon doctors and police flooded into the building to carry off the wounded. There were more than a few coroners as well. Sir Margaret had a simple leg fracture, which got put in a splint quickly. Lady Halflance had a few cuts on her, and I was completely unhurt, somehow. Once the medical side of things was done with, I approached Lady Halflance.

“Did it just go rogue? I mean it seemed pretty angry, almost…” I said.

“No. Archopolids only do what they are programmed to do. It’s what makes them excellent workers,” she responded, looking up at the bulk of the wrecked Archopolid.

“So that means someone must have sent it after you? Programmed it to kill you, specifically?” Lady Halflance nodded. “Well, I worked with computer programming back on Earth. Maybe if I can find the terminal on this thing, I can find some evidence of who did that.” Lady Halflance was silent for a while.

“Has anyone here worked with Archopolids before? Where is the thing programmed from?” she said, looking around the room. One woman, lying on a stretcher, coughed before speaking up.

“It’s a punch card slot, by the back of the head right on top of the neck. You’ll have to climb to get at it.” Lady Halflance turned to me, nodding her head in the direction of the hulk. I ran over, and started climbing. I had always been a fan of climbing, back on Earth. I wasn’t a professional climber or anything like that, and I wasn’t particularly fit, but give me a boulder or a short tree and I would be on that thing in no time. The body of the Archopolid provided surprisingly many hand- and footholds, making it easy going. Furthermore, it was less taxing than before to hold myself up, because of how much lighter I was.

Sure enough, at the top of the Archopolid was a small panel marked with the word CARDS. It took a couple of heaves to get it open (perhaps being absolutely tiny wasn’t all downsides) and I found a roll of hard paper with holes punched in them. I had no idea what any of this meant, but I took it anyway before jumping down off of the Archopolid’s back.

“So, if you’re telling me that someone must have programmed this thing to come after you, do you have any idea who might want to do that?” I said, walking up to Lady Halflance carrying the roll of punched paper. She laughed.

“Where do I even begin? First is my family, who has considered me nothing but a wasteful and stupid mistake of a human being since I was a teenager, and would love if I was dead and no longer a bother for the Halflance name. There’s the Endrelese separatists, who consider me a symbol of all that has been done to them and their people. There are all of my rivals in Parliament, which considering I am currently in the minority party, is most of Parliament. Then there is the entirety of the Cassandran Empire, which considers me a rebel and a scion of traitors!” Lady Halflance leaned down to look me directly in the eyes, “The real question is who doesn’t want me dead?” I raised my hand. Behind me, Sir Margaret raised her hand.

The rest of my first day on Selene was uneventful. The police got a statement from me, Sir Margaret and Lady Halflance hugged, and we went back to the carriage. The excitement of the Archopolid attack had drained me, along with basically everything else that had gone on in the last few hours. And so, I drifted off to sleep in the carriage, dreams full of gunfire and splintered wood.

Author's Note: I just want to say that when I uploaded the first chapter of Swords of Selene, I had absolutely no idea that this many people were going to end up reading it. This is a thank you to everyone who's actually gone through and followed this story so far, and who will hopefully continue to follow it as the story continues. I intend to keep up a regular posting schedule of one chapter a week on Thursdays, which should be sustainable for the foreseeable future. I'd also like to invite everyone who's reading to comment, favorite, leave a review, whatever floats your boat. I hope y'all enjoy, and thank you once again for reading.