The sky was dark, clouds concealed the multitudes of stars above and the moon was fully in its dark phase. Titus was leading a heavy patrol out into the black forest above ground with his other two most trusted Reciprocators, Cleora and Horace. They were joined by Lavinia's Eradicators Theophilus and Octavia. The six heavy clockwork bodies moved quietly through the light brush, near the Great Tree when Titus' optics caught movement. The patrol had been routine, ordered because the Iron Mother suspected they would not be the only ones interested in the node atop which the Great Tree grew. Titus raised his halberd in the air to signal a halt so that his accoustic relay could pick up the air vibrations of whatever caused the movement.
Whatever it was, it was on the other side of the Great Tree. Titus nodded to Lavinia, who knew the protocol at least as well as Titus himself did. The two groups split apart and began to creep forward. Their engines ran silently, powered entirely by their soul vessel, so while they gave off no smoke or the glow of a coal fire, they could only dim the faint magenta glow of their optics so much. It was Cleora who saw the two figures in the night, no more than fifteen meters ahead. Sure that they were already seen, Titus slammed his halberd against his shield making a loud clang which reverberated through the thin forest. The signal received, both Titus and Lavinia willed the gears in their legs to drive them forward toward the enemy. Whoever these figures were, they could not be allowed to escape and reveal the sight of Convergence presence.
They detoured around a pool of water, not knowing its depth, and saw the two figures running to meet them. Surely they must be mad to take on six battle ready heavy infantry as only two? But a quick glance to Titus' left showed their enemies' true plan, an ambush! Theophilus was completely surrounded by savages with some kind of glaive. Theophilus tried to fight them off but their coordination allowed one to score a strike against one of Theophilus' hydraulics in his right leg, releasing its steam and momentarily crippling him. Some bird cawed unnervingly right above Octavia and looked like it shifted into a man who struck her from behind. One of the first two figures came close enough for Titus to see that it was made of stone, confirming his suspicions of who his enemies were: Circle Orboros. The stone figure summoned thousands of tiny stones and sent them toward Theophilus, who could not get out of the way in time. The rain of rocks damaged him so much that the glow from his soul vessel started to fade. The other Orboros man used the same incantation to buckle Octavia down to a knee as she held off the mysterious man behind her.
Seeing this man as the leader of the band, Titus charged at him with his protean polearm charged from his vessel, and struck him down in one fatal strike. The two halves of his body hadn't even hit the ground before Cleora and Horace were at his side. Titus ordered them to assist their brothers and sisters, but he needn't have worried. Octavia openned her protean buckler revealing and furiously tore into the strange man who appeared behind her until he vanished from sight again using presummably the same magic that teleported him there. Lavinia charged into the ambushers with her bucklers in attack mode and avenged Theophilus, slaying a third of the unit within a second. Titus swung at the stone man as he monitored the skirmish, but that slight distraction allowed it to escape long enough to pelt Octavia with stones in her moment of furious triumph, bringing her down.
Horace came around Titus' flank and cornered the stoneshaper enough that they were both able to bring it down, collapsing into a pile of rubble. Lavinia, now with two of her Eradicators in the dirt, slaughtered each of the ambushers even before Cleora could assist her. There was a moment of silence as Titus and Lavinia tuned their accoustic receivers to hear if another ambush was approaching. The forest was silent except for the rustling of the great trees. Titus knew he needed to report this as soon as possible and considered briefly if he had the time to bring Octavia and Theophilus' bodies or just their vessels. The bodies did not look beyond repair and he knew an Enigma Foundry should be near by. Now the only question remained, what to do with the bodies...
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