12 Miles Below

One does not steal an airspeeder on pure luck. It takes great skill and preparation, as well as a healthy respect for the great beasts and a healthy disrespect for the rules and laws surrounding said beasts. So then, how does one go about stealing an airspeeder?

First, the lay of the land is required. Airspeeders are large bulky creatures that have a mutually beneficial relationship with their scrawny flock of Reachers, who tend to their needs and give them belly scratches every now and then.

While it’s easy to sneak up on an unsuspecting airspeeder, the behemoths being large, fat, and usually asleep, the more agile Reachers scurrying about startle easy and will raise the alarm.

Once one Reacher starts yelling, the rest of the Reachers will join, performing a communal ritual known as “Calling the clan millita” and “Demanding justice” - very annoying things any good hunter should avoid at all costs.

So the first step to grand theft airspeeder is making sure to strike when the least amount of Reachers are around, tending to the slumbering target. And if there’s any that do wind up picking up on the scent of an interloper within their territory, it’s critical to intercept and gag the little monsters before they start being trouble.

Fortunately, that’s exactly what I had Captain Sagrius for. Why do things yourself when you could get others to do them for you? Minions truly were the best.

“Almost got us, this one.” I said, patting the gagged man who had given up struggling by now. Not much he could do to wiggle out of Sagrius’s hold. We had relic armor after all. And he was just a taskmaster with a standard fatigues. He’d spotted us wrangling up his friend in the darkness of a broken light, and had the good sense of racing for the emergency comms rather than go investigate what the scuffle was about like his prior friends had.

Unfortunately for him, relic armor can chase down anyone, so it was a moot point for the poor bastard. “Put him with the others, and strip him.” I ordered, while my motley crew behind me grimly followed orders.

Captain Sagrius had been rather easy to convince. Somehow word had already gotten to him about my plans because his bags were already packed and ready to go, along with quite a few other knights. I think they’d been watching me for any signs of exactly this. Rather, I had a harder time convincing a few of the knights that they couldn’t go with me, due to the clan lord’s orders for only five knights.

I don’t know whether to be touched that they would go so far, or a little worried that they assumed I’d get myself killed if left alone for a few days. Given the scrapshit I was dipping my hands into these days, I think the second point is a little justified. If I were to be honest. Of which, I am anything but.

But I digress, we were speaking about stealing an airspeeder.

No one had ever stolen an airspeeder in the history of the clan. So the crew in the hanger here were the night watch, who were more interested in doing Reacher things rather than keep watch over their prized airspeeder.

This one was called The Zephyr, which was an ironic name considering it’s one of those heavy cargo ships made to haul things around, the very same type that Teed had chased down relentlessly a few days ago. Not the fastest or sleekest ship the clan had. I’d have opted to swipe an intercept frigate instead so that we’d outpace any chasing force. That said, we had the advantage of foresight in knowing there wouldn’t be anyone chasing after us.

So better to leave the intercept frigates in clan control where they could be used for military purposes, and a more useless cargo frigate like this one could be spared.

Teed crouched in the shadows, glancing around. “One more marshal to go.” He said. “I think I spotted him, by the aft side. Think we can get him?”

“Easy.” I said, handing down the order to some of my knights. Behind me, the bundled up Reacher was being stripped of the identifying parts of his clothing, while another man was quickly putting it on just as fast.

The clan lord had told me only five knights were allowed to accompany me down underground. But to actually capture and crew the ship, I’m free to bring more people. So I had Teed go around getting a small crew of Reachers who owed him favors just for this. Airspeeders could be driven by a crew of one, technically, but it sure wasn’t an easy task. There’s more to keeping an airspeeder in the air than just steering it away from the ground.

And more importantly it would look rather weird to see a crew of one.

Another bonk in the night, and there weren’t any more marshals around to give us any trouble. The only ones remaining in the hanger were the common Reachers, who were more focused on getting their own deadlines met than questioning the whole. So, now it was time to stroll in and steal the airspeeder under everyone’s noses.

Now, as I was saying before, Reachers are panicky little creatures of habit. Scare one with a change of plans, and the rest of the hive gets scared as well, screaming bloody murder and asking for pay raises. So the best way to get to the prize was to pretend everything was going according to plan.

Hence me and mine strutting right up into the hangar, like we belonged there. Even had some workers hauling food and gear, the heavy stuff. Some Reachers gave us a glance, and then went right back to their tasks. We reached the side of the airspeeder with little issue, where part two of my plan came into work.

A group of Reachers were gaggling inside the airspeeder, some actually busy cleaning while the rest were playing cards at a table. They all glanced up at us as we walked in. “Uhh, is there a deployment?” One of them asked, looking very confused, and a little worried.

I drew deep into character. I was a knight who'd been given last second orders, in the middle of the night. I was too stressed and tired to deal with anything more. I'd just barely gotten my gear on and marched on over to this stupid hangar for something only the gods knew about since nobody bothered to fill me on any details.

Ergo, I just wanted this ship up and running so I could go down to the cargo bay and get the rest of my sleep while the pilots got me and my knights where we were needed.

I drew out a carefully prepared counterfeit orders, rolled up in an authentic looking piece of paper, and tossed it onto their table. “Orders from the top." I said, voice tired and praying for everything to get just done. "Other ships aren’t ready or already booked, so this one’s the one we’ve been assigned to. Go get this authorized while we get the ship started. We got to be out in the freeze yesterday.”

The man closest to the tossed orders opened it up, gave it a quick look and closed it. “Okay, I’ll grab the marshals and we’ll have you setup, sir.” He turned to the others who sat a little dumbfounded, before nudging his head in a pretty universal order for Get moving you lazy fucks.

Teed was already making his way to the pilots seat, while the rest of his small handpicked airspeeder crew were taking their positions and going through the motions. Gear and supplies for the trip were being brought in, and put into place, snuggly on the sides. The Reachers inside the ship were hastily clearing up their workstations, mops and other maintenance gear, making a quick scramble to get outside.

Sagrius and the rest of the Winterscar knights I’d brought with me made their way to the cargo hold where they took their seats. I escorted the Reacher in command as he made his way outside and scanned around the hanger.

A marshal was by his workstation, pretending to do the same things he’d seen the real marshal do right before we jumped him and stole his lunch money, and then stuffed him away kicking and screaming in a closet somewhere.

The imposter turned to glance at the Reacher who was waving him down for attention. “Emergency dispatch?” He asked, walking up, playing his part perfectly.

The Reacher passed on the falsified orders, to which my mole opened up, pretended to give it a look, and rolled it back up, turning around and waving over another imposter marshal. “All right, I’ll bring this back and mark the ship for emergency away mission.” He turned to me and gave me a salute. “Please, go right ahead and get everything setup sir knight, we’ll handle the rest of the legwork from here. Safe journey.”

“Hopefully it’ll be smooth sailing." I groaned out "Thanks for understanding the situation and time crunch, I appreciate it.” I shook his hand like it was a done deal.

My mole turned to the Reacher, “Start preparations for the hangar, I’ll go file this with the Logi. Let’s try to move fast.”

The Reacher at my side considered it job done for himself and waved to the rest of the departing crew, making sure his little flock of followers had all disembarked from the ship. The only people left aboard were Teed, his mutinous crew of daredevils, and my five knights waiting for me to climb aboard.

The imposter marshals grouped up, passing along the falsified orders and all pretending to authorize it. Somewhere a Logi was waking up in cold sweat, with a terrible gut feeling that something hadn't been filed right. But the poor bastard would only find out tomorrow, when the captured marshals were let loose.

The rest of the Reacher nest was roused awake, like it had been prodded by an angry taskmaster. They followed through on their work without question, sealing the internal hangar bulkheads and flooding the room with the frozen waste air. And most importantly, no questions asked since everyone thought everyone else had already authorized the launch.

Five minutes later, the massive doors rumbled open and that’s how you steal an airspeeder in style.

Teed punched in the commands, setting the ship into autopilot. The white wastes now truly surrounded us. “Going to be a while before we reach the entry point Kidra’s team used. Make yourself comfortable, kid.”

“I brought my favorite blanket, no worries.” I said, settling into the co-pilot seat. There was something oddly tranquil about watching the white wastes illuminated by a full moon. A vast empty plane of silver stretching out on all sides, reflecting light from the ice. The light played tricks on the speeding ground underneath, making my eyes spot the dark contrast insead of the brightly lit reflections. Like weaving trails on the ground, bits of crushed ice and snow being blown backwards as we soared over.

The trip would take a full day and night with our current pace. In the cargo hold, the knights continued to train with fractals, trying out some of the ones sourced from Talen’s books, or found in Atius’s notes.

The ones leftover from Talen were building blocks, utility that offered interesting and novel uses, not specific for combat. The ones leftover from our Clan Lord were clearly made to be used in a fight, but they always required a soul to connect to it. In order to fully use those spells, the knights would need to multi-task, being able to spread their soul out in a way none of them had ever practiced before.

I had a cheat, in that I could go all-in on commanding the occult while Cathida controlled my body. The rest of the knights needed to do it the old fashioned way.

Captain Sagrius walked in, just as I was about to doze off. He reached the side of the cabin, and sat. “My lord, a word if you will?” He asked.

I have him a sleepy nod. “Sure, what can I do for you captain?”

“The men and I are ready and wiling to follow wherever you go. But we are still… inexperienced underground. The only time we’ve been there had been with Shadowsong, fighting off that machine ambush.”

“Right, and besides getting a first sight at the underpass, the next moment you were all back on the airspeeder while Teed chased down the Undersiders. Don’t worry captain, I can lead up to the city without issue. In theory.”

“In theory?”

I laughed, “I’ve been underground only once, so I’m not exactly a veteran. But Ironreach was, and he’s spent the last bits of free time he had teaching me everything I’d need to know to reach the city. Not everything about the underground, that would have taken him weeks to unpack, but everything that we’ll likely run into between here and there.” I patted the side of my head, “Also left a manual on how to survive down there, where to find food, and best places to sleep in safety. Useful stuff.”

With Father, I’d been down there for a half day and our entire mission was to escape. This time, the trip would take three days, which meant we’d have to camp, sleep, and source our own food down there. There’d be downtime, and Ironreach stressed quite a lot that finding the right place to set up a camp was among the most important things I needed to know. Even if I needed to stay up another two hours or backtrack, just to find a suitable location, or stop early if I’d stumbled on one, it was important enough.

The number one cause of death was ambush by machines. Given that we had a Feather likely behind us, that ambush might be more than just deadly.

I went into detail with Sagrius on everything I’d learned, and handed him the manual Ironreach had passed down. It was a good hour and a half before all the questions had winded down and he left to go back to share the information with the rest of the knights. He was far more confident on what to expected underground.

I’d like to have said that our trip there was full of adventure, but I’d be lying. It was a tranquil ride, with nothing in every direction for a few hundred miles. The most interesting thing we passed was a bit of ruins that had just started to peek from the underground, pushed up by the mites, likely within the last few days since that location hadn’t been logged previously on our charts. And still, it was a good detour away if we had been in the business of going exploring.

The destination was likewise just as non-descript. A simple crevice, a mile long, that was wide enough that snow couldn’t pile up and cover it all. Crevices like these were a bit everywhere, but if they were small enough, they’d be covered up by snow and become undetectable without special scanning tools. This particular crevice was well survicable, as it was angled in a way that wind would clear off the snow rather than blow it in. By the base, sheltered from the wind and a few feet already underground, were five square habitat tents, unpowered and unused. A few crates of foodstuff along with spare environmental suits, soap, sponges, and other survival tools were left in perfect condition. Normally, if things had gone according to plan, this little campsite would have been inhabited. Kidra and her knights would have been camping here for a few days, waiting for a pickup. They could have even been outside, sparring with one another, or having a smaller team go a little ways underground to collect frostbloom or even fish if there were any rivers or lakes nearby underground.

But the camp was pristine. Unused, left behind by Kidra in preparation for their return. And beyond that little sign of life, the darkness of the underground loomed before us all.

The ice crackled and crunched under our boots as we arrived into the small nook of shelter, taking stock of the site and the current state. Behind, Winterscar scavengers in full suits were busy bringing more crates and supplies to add to this campsite, for when my own team returned and prepared for camp. A survey showed that the current rations Kidra had brought were more than double what would be needed to keep five knights well fed for a few weeks. A little odd of her to go overkill like that, but better more food than a lack of it. The crew lowered new boxes, stacking them in the shade and corners, then made their way back to the landed airspeeder. Leaving only knights behind, staring at the entrance to the underground.

It was time for farewells. For now. He'll be returning to the clan, where he's already prepared to face judgement. It was that, or wait out here for possibly weeks - or even indefinitely if I died down there - which was a pretty terrible waste of both his talents and keeping an entire airspeeder idling away while the clan had need of it.

Going underground with me was a death sentence to him or any of the airspeeder crew, given they had no armor and only basic combat training. There's a reason it was clan law to bar entrance to the underground for scavengers, and leave that domain only to knights and escorted traders. So back to the clan he'd go.

The weekly airspeeder coming here to check if Kidra had returned or not would be my ride home too, assuming everything went well. As for the rest of his crew of temporary conscripted pirates, they planned on donning environmental suits and finding a way to sneak into the clan after being dropped off a few miles off the colony side. It would be a long walk, and they'll probably get caught, but riding back in the airspeeder was a guarantee of getting caught anyhow so they hedged their bets here.

The comms crackled. “See you in a few weeks, if all goes good.” Teed said. “And I hope you’ll have company with you when you do.”

“Don't worry, I’m not returning alone up here. And thanks for the lift.”

I saw him wave from the cockpit, as the massive airspeeder lifted back up off the ground, making a lazy turn all the while speeding up. Soon the engines were a distant noise, a white comet flying over the frozen waste.

As for me and the knights, I turned to face dark entrance, a steep drop into a different world.

It seems almost like fate in a way. Father had been right, all that time ago, as we rose on the elevator, seeking safety. Even back then, desperate to escape the underground, I knew it would eventually come to this moment. Where I would stand at that precipice between realms.

Between who I’d once been, and who I could become.

I took a deep breath and then stepped forward, back into world below.

Next chapter - Interlude - General Zaang

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