Chapter Text
At the shores of a new hell
Some years ago, before the legion unleashed its true potential as machine of death, of ruin, of precise and tactical bloodshed
The autonomous machines of the Legion and the San Magnolian military were fighting at the shores of a new hell
If by hell one means the ironically beuatiful place that was just known to be the old borders of San Magnolia and the empire of Giad, and the miles upon miles of plain lands and peaceful green that are now filled with a new layer of nutrients made of the corpses of the killed San Magnolians who were truly fighting the autonomous legion
FIRE AT WILL!! WE NEED ROCKETS ALL OVER THE LINE OF AMEISE NOW!!! The second-to-last line of San Magnolian soldiers was about to fall completely and the Ameise were advancing under the cover of its more powerful allies, the Grauwolfs, that fired missiles by the hundreds.
A terrified voice of a San Magnolian officer in the main entrance of the crumbling base as well as the gunfire of a heavy pattern FN FAL rifle could be heard on the radio of a deceased soldier's remnants, as a Grauwolfs fired a fragmentary missile that mutilated its body into little pieces, splattering blood all over the field of battle before charging and decapitating the poor sod and slicing its way through the San Magnolian lines with a full squad of nine Ameise to hunt down the rest of the San Magnolian soldiers that fired back at the machines with explosive rounds from their FN FALs and 40mm grenades from M32 grenade launchers, destroying five Ameise; and between all the hailstorm of bullets and grenades the Grauwolfs efficiently sliced the radio operator's head and the other four Ameise fired down the rest of the last thirty enemy soldiers before just advancing with slight damages all over its exterior frame
The aforementioned terrified person whose voice in the radio was of couldn't even kill itself as its rifle was perfectly sliced in two out of its hands after another Ameise, possibly intentionally, left the human officer fire its full magazine of 30 AP rounds to the machine's body, as a sign of superiority. But this unit was a white sheep; they shouldn't be capable of such complex thought patterns...
The base was fully overwhelmed, the orders were almost chaotic if not outright senseless shouting, the walls were about to be razed already by missiles from the Grauwolfs and the Ameises that firing at the windows, working in teams to lure the enemy into the point that they determined the weakest pillar of the entire building.
If the soldiers were running out, the Grauwolfss would be there to slice them down, piece by piece, limb by limb. But for that, the soldiers would have to break apart the remaining ten Ameise firing ceaselessly to them, and for that, they desperately needed grenade launchers, that were not produced anymore as the factories were working the fastest they could in producing the new units called juggernauts
Another Ameise then nodded its purple lens in disapproval before firing at another officer's legs with 7.62mm machine gun fire at point blank range, before the machine of the legion proceeded to slice the human officer's weak hands that were shaking uncontrollably out of fear to prevent the San Magnolian officer to activate the grenades of its bandolier. The slice was made at a speed and with such precision only machines can watch and perform at, –almost choreographed along with the slaughter around the machine and the soldier– a slice so clean that no drop of blood was dropped to the ground.
Orders were still being shouted through the radio, to prevent the fall of the chain of command and loss of morale, as if by that time, shouting orders and keeping morale high had any sense
Back when there were humans fighting, the treatment was humane, albeit everyone was surely doomed, no one was forced to fight if they didn't want to; all of then wanted to keep fighting. It was their nation, the country of Albans, the pureblooed, the superior humans against the evil relics, they had to halt them. And if they couldn't, they had to try, paying with their lives if need be
Base by base, Giad was advancing tirelessly as the legion was in the frontlines, causing the destruction they wanted to be freed from, as if they were using a remote control to drive the war where the Giadian royal family desired; they maybe weren't thirsty for bloodshed and enemy heads, nor the legion even, but such... mechanical carnage, was anyways bneing liberated upon an army of humans
After fifteen days of nightmare, the war ended with a total San Magnolian defeat, no one fleed, because no one could flee, the machines of the legion sliced and killed and burned them all in brutally efficient ways, worthy of modern warriors clad in metal and circuitry
At the rear of the battlefield, the queen of all the legion, the Mistress, the Merciless Queen, was watching a holographic tactical map of the actual battle on the San Magnolian front, watching as the grids were changing from color red to a perfect blue, as the seas that they unconsciously wanted to conquer as well, as the conquest is their purpose, destruction of the enemies of Giad, its goal in life, the continent being its new playground, and the battlefields plagued by death, bloodshed, terror and other horrors, its natural habitat. The queen was satisfied with the annihilation performed by the Legion. Maybe the Giadian royalty was satisfied as well?
Five years later...
The Shepherd No Face saw a new warzone in the now called eighty sixth sector, filled with remnants of juggernauts, —the Feldress of San Magnolia—, as well as decaying structures that were once cities part of the equally decaying republic and noted a set of fifteen juggernauts fighting against a little tactical squad of five Ameise, three Grauwolfss and four Löwes in the ruins of some buildings; taking advantage of their grappling hooks, the squad of eighty sixers, all of them having being stripped of its human rights, because naturally all the soldiers (humans) already died almost 10 years ago, so the republic had to resort to not-so-efficient but working autonomous multi-legged vehicles, but even the Legion knew the truth behind the window of fakery the republic was hiding behind their curtains of indulgence.
Peace in wartimes is none and shall be like that. Peace should be for the humans, not for simple pieces of hardware created specifically for a zero human deaths war.
This war was performed between two nations using autonomous robots; the difference was just the name.
The Legion against the Juggernauts. Except that there were people inside the latter; accursed traitors sentenced to redemption in death in the fields of wicked slaughter; again, another layer of indulgence from the five-colored flagged country–better said, it's society–.Whoever is the most accursed doesn't matter anymore; the only thing that matters is dying on one's own terms
"Fire at those scum cans! We have earned our freedom and not even the legion will take it from us!" One of the pilots of one of the four remaining juggernauts standing in the rooftop of a two store building and surrounded by a group of six Ameise–which were pointing their weapons at the juggernauts–
The four juggernauts fired its 57mm smoothbore cannons at four Ameise, destroying them in the blink of an eye, but not without the six-legged robots killing an eighty sixer and damaging a second juggernaut in the fuel tank
The remaining two Ameise retreated while firing its weapons. One of them though, hadn't it's conventional 12.7mm machine guns, but a twin linked 7.62 mm M132 microgun in the left and a multiple laser guiding system to guide rockets at five targets at once on its right side
<Sigma Five to hammer team. Requesting light missile package. Sigma team is heavily outnumbered by the enemy and we're away from our weapons range.
Microguns' ammo depleted. Sigma Three is outside its effective range of fire. Sector 33C might fall under enemy control at this pace>
A juggernaut jumped over Sigma Three –the Ameise with regular weapons–, and fired its 57mm cannon at Sigma Five, but Sigma Three moved away, rapidly took position at the left flank of the San Magnolia mech and fired its machine guns, killing the pilot inside
Then in less than fifteen nanoseconds, the Shepherd No Face, watching the battle from 20 kilometers above the ground gave the order for a zentaur catapult, who was twenty klicks away from them that loaded a silver-grey box, to throw –is more correctly, to fire– the container.
And with the power of its rail, the hexapedal logistics unit sent its load very high and fast into the sky
<Denied. The most effective course of action is to send you supply package. A Zentaur already sent a resupply box with explosive ammo for you both. It should arrive in kinda 30 seconds> No Face replied to Sigma Five
<Understood; Sigma Three, we will retreat to reload. Time to run and reload>
The two Ameise ran back between the debris like cockroaches escaping from insecticide, then jumped to get cover behind some destroyed buildings and ran away to reach to the supply box
Two hundred fifty meters away from the main battle, the resupply box opened when its multiple cameras detected the two allied units, revealing another two boxes and sets of robotic arms.
First, the Ameise with microguns –which are basically miniguns, but smaller– opened its ammo hatch in the right side of its frame and released all its depleted ammo boxes which were rapidly replaced for another set of 10 boxes of explosive ammo, a total of 2500 explosive bullets, then it left the place to the other Ameise, who released the ammo belt that had the form of some intestines or similar
Then it got a new ammo belt with explosive ammo. Then the two Ameise ran again to where they detected the enemy the latest time, but this time the remaining four juggernauts surrounded them from inside an abandoned warehouse with a more or less clear line of fire, and then they fired at the position where the Amesies were.
This was thanks to the pilot of the damaged juggernaut staying in its unit and transmitting the enemy location to the rest of the squad.
Sigma Three destroyed the damaged juggernaut that stood in its place, splattering the pilot inside the cockpit before the bone white quadrupedal mech exploded.
By that time, Sigma Five ran into the warehouse and managed to see the insides of the place, rapidly locating the juggernauts thanks to a little group of fifty blue butterflies: these weren't the ordinary flying bugs, as even they were units of the legion, the Edenfalter, a network of tactical support, surveillance and data interception and relaying, made to transmit orders smoother and faster and to...
Hear and see every inch of any battlefield!
All this battle and maybe all their previous battles the eighty sixers were always on the watch of the legion but this was another level of being watched
Inside the warehouse, Sigma Five entered by firing a twenty bullets to destroy a wall. Then it rapidly fired to a juggernaut, destroying it instantly in an explosion that happened so fast the pilot didn't feel any pain.
Then the other three juggernauts fired back its 12.7mm machine guns to prevent the building to collapse. A pair of juggernauts fired again and Sigma Five answered by overpowering the guiding laser and pointing to the lens of a third juggernaut, blindng the mech
"<Sigma Three, I found the enemy units. Come to my location and provide tactical fire support>" Sigma Five transmitted it's position to its ally and Three ran to the warehouse, jumping over debris after firing at the building where the burning juggernaut was, demolishing the place and burying the two San Magnolian mechs under the concrete
<Sigma Three to No Eyes, I need visual of the situation, coming in to the location of the enemy>
Then, Sigma Three received a video transmission with audio of the what was happening in the warehouse, relayed in real time on a picture-on-picture screen in the right upper corner of its HUD, revealing a juggernaut that was stopped there and another pair of juggernauts firing its machine guns at Sigma Five
Another angle showed that the middle right leg of Sigma Five was damaged but it was still capable of walking and running and Sigma Five blinding a fourth enemy mech's lens then firing carefully and destroying the juggernaut
The video feed also showed that Sigma Five still had eighty one percent of ammo left, so it was fine, as well as the ammo count of all units in the video feed
Sigma Three fired at what it detected it was a founding pillar of the building, causing a side of it to fall apart, blocking the sight of another juggernaut and using the surprise factor created by the fog of the concrete dust to kill an enemy unit
1 juggernaut against a pair of Ameise. The butterflies flew out of the place, like if they knew they were not required in that place anymore
Sigma Five placed in front of the remaining juggernaut and let the bone white mech fire its 57mm cannon. Then the Ameise with microguns fired at the enemy mech's legs, locking it in place so that Sigma Three could capture the processor alive.
To make sure, Sigma Three carefully fired two rounds at the pilot inside, as the legion already knew about the self destruction mechanism of the enemy units: to kill themselves before being captured. What Sigma Five has done to was to destroy or disable the hands of the pilot
After having secured the zone, Sigma Five began transmitting to No Face
<Sigma Five to No Face. We successfully took sector 33C and took the enemy CPUs for data gathering. Requesting a tausenfussler at my position.>
<No Face to Sigma Five. We have detected no other enemy signs in thermal nor IR. Virtual daylight visor doesn't detect any enemy in the sector. All enemies confirmed silenced. Pale Rider is sending backup to reinforce the sector>
<Sigma Five to No Face. We have triple checked and another two CPUs are ready for extraction, but they're in what it seems to be like life support mode. Suggesting the trash trucks to come here ASAP; we might lose important data of the enemy locations.>
The tausenfussler, a millepede unit the size of a scavenger but much, much longer, –whose job was to pick up the remnants of the allies to repair them or use as spare parts and to pick up enemy CPUs for the high command to analyze the information–, was approaching as fast as it could, looking for the best way to reach the location where the dying pilots were
<Tausenfussler ETA is five minutes. Change to patrol mode and night vision mode. In thirty minutes it will be night and enemies might approach> No Face added a command queue and patrol route for the pair of Amesies to follow, after all, they were mainly reconnaissance units
<Blood for the empire. Brains for the Legion. This is the Scarecrows fifty company under the command of Pale Rider. Coming to take your place. Go and patrol, Sigma Five and Three>
a Lowe armed not without its conventional cannons with rifled barrels, but with a pair of short range plasma cannons in the upper turret and 40mm automatic mortar sponsons on the sides and a twin linked 88mm rifled barrel cannon with extended barrels capable of firing at up to a 50 degree angle and depression angle of minus 3 degrees said to both Amesies to leave the warehouse and go to patrol
This Löwe was escorted by four Grauwolfss armed with conventional loadout except for the kill marks in their vibroblades, as well as four Amesies with their front legs replaced by a pair of chainsaws with tungsten teeth bathed in recently splattered blood and 20mm Neopup cannons with 20mm APHE ammo instead of the conventional 7.62mm machine guns and red lenses, denoting the fighting doctrine Pale Rider wants all the units under his command to follow: short range firefights and if possible, to reach melee
<Query: we found fifteen juggernauts and we killed six; where are the other nine units?> Sigma Five asked to the Löwe in front of them
<Reply: the rest dared to fight Pale Rider face to face. All of them were melted inside their tombs –worthy foes if you allow me to say it; the remaining frames were picked up by a group of tausenfusslers and sent to No Face for reverse engineering> the legion tank said its answer with a sensation of pride; such a strange thing for an autonomous robot that was a white sheep of all things
<Query: is your Shepherd correctly calibrated this time?> Sigma Three asked to the Löwe
<Reply: It is properly calibrated as all of us, Sigma Three, or do you want to be a practice target for our commander?> The tank of the legion in front of the two Amesies pointed its main cannon towards them while the latter were leaving the warehouse to patrol the area
<Suggestion: If that titan doesn't follow even the simplest order from our empress, it might work better as spare parts; addition: the commander pale rider might have to have its CPU checked or replaced, it might be damaged beyond repair> Sigma Three added
<As the princess Ader-Adler wills it, so be it> Sigma Five replied to the Legion tank through radio transmission while patrolling the designated area with Sigma Three
<Suggestion: do not cause non-intentional combat situations, Sigma Five. The Löwe has better weaponry and armor. Prevent the waste of ammo by following orders> Sigma Five basically told Sigma Three to not mess with the more powerful legion units as almost every other unit could delete them from the map
Far away from that location, during a rainy, but not so windy midnight, a bunch of blue butterflies were flying north to liberte et egalite the capital of San Magnolia, watching a train reaching from pont du ble, and then they saw it: its Shepherd –one of the most highly advanced units of all the Legion–, No Eyes itself was on the field, the second most sinister Shepherd of the legion, just behind the more notorious Pale Rider
A San Magnolian handler just walked out of the train station at liberte et egalite, the capital of San Magnolia, put on its glasses and forgot to bring an umbrella. Seems that today the forecast failed. The humans reporting the forecast in the internet tv channel might be from a superior race and all of that, but their technology was only par with its treatment to the non-Albans
Better said:
A Shepherd of the Legion disguised as an Alban person that used glasses has just walked down a train wearing the San Magnolian military uniform, put in its glasses, then it walked away from the station and noted it forgot to bring an umbrella!?
Then some bunch of Edenfalters descended and covered the shepherd with their minuscule metallic frames so that No Eyes could keep itself dry
The para-RAID device the shepherd had in one is its bags started to beep and emit a blue light, so the "handler" took it out from the bag of its jacket and answered the call and the Edenfalters secured the line against interference and interception.
The downside of this is that the call becomes unidirectional, meaning that one side must wait for the other to finish speaking, and the layers upon layers of encryption raised the ping of the call from 5 nanoseconds to 30 milliseconds
<No Face to No Eyes. Your service as support network has been superb, but we need you for a new job. The Large Scale Offensive to end all enemy nations in a single strike has been scheduled for August 25, 2150. Now is September 2, 2145. You have 5 years to convince the republic of Albans to submit to the empire and if need be, to bring it down to anarchy. For now, keep the enemy as ignorant as they are>
<Yes, my Lord, No Face. As the princess Ader-Adler wills, so be it. Query: how did my existence has been kept secret from even Mistress? Free speech: in my opinion, that's an achievement by itself> No Eyes replied to No Face through the enhanced para-RAID call while walking the thirty squares to the headquarters.
The "handler" had enough money in its pockets but the rest of the currency was kept in a bank account. This money was from the...donor of the body No Eyes has become, which was a deceased San Magnolian soldier from when the actual army was sent to fight the legion 5 years ago
<No Eyes to No Face: no one will see it coming>
<End call>
"Not even you, my Lord" No Eyes said to itself
No Eyes finished the call and calmly saved the para-RAID device back in its pocket
The silver eyes of the "handler" glowed blue down the eyeglasses in the middle of the night before fitting them correctly in its place and entering the headquarters where other handlers as Vladilena Milizé fought and were fighting the legion from
"Time to wake up, piggos. Slaughter time has arrived" said No Eyes in a low volume while seeing a bunch of drunkards in military uniforms all knocked out from the beers they drunk in the workplace, as always. Then passed its ID card into the trinket card reader to enter the areas where the handlers manage the combat
No Eyes then proceeded to reach the statue of saint magnolia which was in the center of a fountain, and thought to itself, as if it was speaking to saint magnolia herself:
"Listen me and listen us fine.
Your children, pure and superior as they say they are, are not. Their slaughter has already been scheduled.
Madness will reign, driving everyone into a homicidal frenzy as we parade in your streets and each one of their pigsties they have worked so hard on shatters a t the snap of our fingers, death and rot will be the delicious scents in the air, breathed by the last Albans to have had the shameful dishonor of having ever lived
Let me repeat myself: all of your indulgent, unworthy kin, will be sliced, torn apart, decapitated, shot at, dragged alive through the streets painted with the red of their bloody insides and the white of their bones and bone marrows, flayed, dissected, their shit-like carcasses discarded as worse than trash, experimented on, all while screaming and begging for their lives, its brains extracted in vivo, their organs pulled out by our machines while the kin you were part of, as rational as they can be, will also kill each other, will pillage each other and push each other inside the transporter band that carries them all to their demise, directly empowering us, the Legion, more and more with each nanosecond it passes.
We will enjoy each passing moment the laments and shrieking of your dirty race lasts; I will smile of satisfaction and we, the Shepherds, shall be betting who is the last pig to die, how will die and how much its suffering and pain will last and sound like until the fear of horrors worse than death kills it from a heart stroke
Every single one of them is already dead. This is not a matter of if, not even of when.
Is simply a matter of how the sentence will be taken care of and who will oversee the oncoming, absolute, carnage. And..."
Then, the Shepherd, disguised as a handler, said in a low, but hearable volume to the face of the statue of saint magnolia
"The morning after, your unfair death will be avenged.
Blood for the empire. Brains for the Legion"
No Eyes presented its honors to the statue in the fountain and walked away to handle a squad of eighty sixers, like lots of other handlers have done and daily do