Consciousness returned to me in the all too familiar way. The moment the darkness ebbed away, a stabbing pain like someone was pickaxing my brain replaced the lack of sensation. A similar sharp pain assaulted my chest. I could tell, as I focused inward, that I had cracked a few of my ribs... again... I really had to stop doing that, at least until my healing grew more powerful.
Probing out with my senses. Something acrid and metallic stung my nose. I could hear a light gust and what sounded like tiny pebbles clattering around alarm klaxons. All this came to me in the instant I awoke, the moment it took before I opened my eyes. Camilla was gone, Athea was gone, the old man was gone. There were three bodies on the ground, all of which I recognized. The two guards, the portly woman with the friendly smile and the man who appeared to have lacked all personality. Their dead eyes stared into nothing while their bodies looked to have been crumbled into themselves the way people crumble paper. Every bone was broken, while blood spilled from hundreds of wounds glistening white from the shattered skeleton. The thought of robbing them of their Huds came to me, but left just as quickly. I was not about to defile these people, even if they were pirates.
The third was the body of Morgan. At least, I was pretty sure it was. Although her Hud was completely retracted, it was not disabled. That was good. At least she was alive, though I had no clue how that was possible. When Camilla’s cutter went off, it obliterated her face, but there was still a head to heal. Now there was not. A clear outline of a human’s bare foot was pressed inches above her neck while surrounded by brain matter and shatters skull fragments. Her arm was still missing, but the strange fiber optic cables that lived in her body were still active. They reached out, grasping bits of bone, scooping up blood and shredded tissue and returning it to the body. They were rebuilding.
As fascinating as the thousands of tiny worms were, the process was slow. Two things kept me from remaining still. To my right, the cell where the old man was once held was now utterly destroyed. All that remained was a six-foot hole in the stone exposing an incredible city scape and at least a three hundred foot drop to the street below. Three drones buzzed up, red and blue lights flashing and nearly blinding me. They blaring out instructions simultaneously. Either due to the speakers that sounded much like a theme parks, or their horrible accent, I understood zero of what they wanted. I did the universal hand raise, but I already knew I would not stick around to be arrested, especially not on a world like this. You could say that I very much did not trust the legal system.
A man ran into the room then. Another user by the telltale lump on his chest. I was beginning to question just how rare these bloody things really were, but he didn’t give me anytime to think. He stared down at the bodies, then to his queen, then back at me. I raised my hands, waving at him, pleading.
“No! It wasn’t…”
In a flash, he had brilliant white armor covering his body. It was thin and hung loose, more like a robe than armor. It was strange, but I was about to get firsthand experience fighting such armor. The man’s hands flicked impossibly fast. Three daggers came from nowhere. One stabbing into my right shoulder, the second clanging off the side of my thigh. I had time to dodge out of the way of the third just as the drones behind me lit up the room.
A powerful laser pulse would have scorched me if I hadn’t dodged the third dagger. In a moment of luck, the beam blasted past and burned a five-inch hole in the user’s chest.
“Huh…” was all I said.
The man stood there for only a moment, not understanding what happened. Then his armor fizzled out of existence and his body crumbled underneath. He appeared to age eighty years in only a second. Yeah, this guy was probably just doing his job on a shitty world, but he attacked me when I tried to explain. Did I feel bad? Nah, fuck him. Hearing a light humming, I ducked a second time as another blast shot past, lighting up the ornamental tapestries that draped in the long hallway adjacent to the room.
Two more people, already armored up, came sprinting around the corner with the speed only a user is capable of. Seeing them, and seeing Imona already identifying them as two Class Five Swordsmiths, I made my decision. I knew regrets would be made this day, but without thinking, I acted. I turned, ducked a third blast from the fucking drones, and leaped out into the open sky.
