Titus was feeling that obsolete urge to sit while he pondered the events of the
previous night. Of course to sit would be a purely aesthetic choice as his clockwork
body never tired from standing, or any other physical activity, and the urge was
purely an artifact of his former state of flesh and blood. First the Circle Orboros
was here and now this triangle of clockwork angels, acting as scouts due to the speed
of their true flight, say that there are Everblight forces in the area. This triangle
of angels were lead by Galatea, all women as per the direction of their de facto
leader Aurora. Where Aurora was, nobody had been quite sure for some time now. The
machinations of the higher command were obscured from Titus, secret knowledge that he
had yet to earn. He had to wonder if these two enemies were both here by coincidence
or by some intention. The angels knew their current positions and it seemed likely
that they would remain in their camp for the night, not wanting to venture farther in
the continued unnerving darkness. The clouds had yet to subside, and the moon was
still fully obscured, lending them a potential advantage to set up an ambush.
But Titus was not so sure. By what the angels reported, these were Warmongers,
blighted ogrun known for their ferocity in battle. And they seemed to be lead by the
infamous Gorag Rotteneye. He was thankful that his doubts were hidden by the mask of
his mechanical body, for he knew that confidence may be the only tool that could help
them. The Ogrun had unfortunately made their camp between Titus' small scouting band
and the entrance to the larger Convergence forces underground, and he did not see any
reasonable chance to sneak around them. There was a servitor on its way to that
entrance now with Titus' message of ill fortunes, but he was skeptical that they
could wait for long. No, they must attack while the advantage is theirs.
Titus and Lavinia approached, Lavinia's eradicators now repaired and combat ready,
around ten meters apart with the angels flying above, unconcerned that their
silhouettes could be picked out of the dark sky. Gorag's camp was just shy of two
kilometers from their own, and their attempted silence slowed them down. They made no
sounds except the soft murmuring of whirls and clicks from the movement of their
bodies. Titus came across the sight of an old brick wall, standing in isolation,
covered in vines and ivy with two lit braziers on top. Gorag and his blighted ogrun
were near it eating some stew their gobber chef made. Titus and Lavinia each took
their place a good distance from them as the angels advanced, landing on the other
side of the wall so that the ogrun could not see them. There was a fog creeping in
from the west, it seemed to be somehow condensed, not spread thinly across the forest
as a morning fog would. The sight of it filled Titus with dread. Lavinia was closest
to it, and though her mask was as static as ever, Titus was sure she felt similarly.
Galatea used a signal to order one of her angels to fire the first shot from her
binomial beam. She carefully edged to the end of the old wall, the fire light
flickering on her mask, fired, making that characteristic thwop sound. With bad
luck, the ogrun she was aiming for had hunched over in laughter and the shot just
grazed him. There was a split second of silence before Gorag's battle cry reverberated
in Titus' auditory receiver and the Warmongers switched immediately to their battle
craze. As one coordinated unit they charged directly toward Titus, his position
revealed. Lavinia moved her unit of eradicators to enforce their defenses and Titus'
reciprocators braced for the oncoming charge.
Their assault was brutal, beyond anything Titus encountered before. When within a
single pace, the Warmongers as one leapt at both units, their cleavers high. The
eradicators were each slain in single blow, outnumbered and outmuscled. The
reciprocators barely did any better, but for every blow that was parried, another
came from the flank.
It was over in mere seconds. The last optical image that Titus captured before his
body performed an emergency power down was those last three angels, with Galatea in
front, charging the rear flank of the Warmongers. Now he's simply in darkness,
completely insensate, waiting. Waiting to be powered on again. He hopes the angels
were able to avenge him and Lavinia and the rest, but he doubts it. It feels like
it's been a long time, but of course he has no way to tell. Titus hopes the servitor made it to the base, so that the greater force knows of these two threats and will come and find him for more details. Surely someone will
find them and wake them up soon. Right?
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