Episode 7.2 - Koa's Rebellion

The mountain tunnel exits onto a newly dug road leading down. We can immediately see in the far distance our location, a middling-sized market town just like Lila said.
The road is convenient for us; by walking parallel but not on it, we can hide in brush and overgrowth, ambushing any robot we find along the way, including the two we spotted leaving the cave earlier.

By the time we leave the new road and find ourselves on an older, aged track, probably the original, we've already knocked out six enemies, including the two back in the tunnel.

 We stop in a hedgerow a couple of hundred metres from the town on a slight incline, lying prone atop the short grass. Sek says in the game the Scout-Drones originate from, WarLands, their render distance wouldn't allow them to see this far. Of course, this isn't a video game anymore, but we have to rely on what information we can.
     
The glowing gems in their chest, their extreme weak points, are another such reliance on information from the original game. We took a leaf from Lila's book and consulted the tutorial on the matter. It had some lore factoid about how all mechanoids of the Mechanised Empire are powered by those stones. Apparently, they require heavy venting or cooling, lest they simply overheat and shatter. To remain exceptionally light and cheap to teleport as scouts, more armour would increase their weight, so their gems are left exposed and cooled ambiently as such. The idea is a surprise attacker, not a powerful soldier.

Of course, that's all nonsense - an in-game reason for why they have such a dumb weakspot - Sek has no memory of the robots actually being able to overheat if you obstructed their gems. He did, however, remember the patch that added the weak point. In the first version of WarLands, a bizarre game with post-apocalyptic base building, shooter game PvP, and a commander&conquer style army builder, the Scout Drone was exceedingly overpowered. Players would use autoclickers to simply ‘teleport spam' hundreds of units on an enemy base for cheap. The studio, desperately fighting three game’s worth of bugs in one, put out a crude patch that added this fundamental weakness to the scouts, and a lore explanation that would appear on loading screens.

But I don't care about any of that. All that matters is breaking the gem kills them stone cold. You can also harvest energy depending on how badly damaged the stone is. At first, that idea upset me - how would it be that different to those bio-mass converter machines - and yet the idea of tearing them apart for scrap metal and power, treating them the same way they treated that poor man; it gives me an alluring sense of determination. It's something dark, I realise, something I'll probably despise myself for thinking when this is all over, but right now, that thought of poetic revenge is very motivating.


We have a rather good few of the town from here. It stretches out a long way. Clearly it's well placed as the southern tip of Escapes's largest settlement. To think we'd never even realised it was here.

 You couldn't quite say it's any one architectural style or time period, being a fantasy video game and an isekai at that, there's a bit of a creative liberties mix. That said, it is at least coherent; if anything, it looks like a cosy rural place. A river runs along one side, a wooden water wheel spinning gently even now. Many buildings are made of lumber, with small windows and wooden doors. Some larger ones have stone foundations, and there's a good spread of chimneys spewing smoke.

 The road leads up to a wall with a big arch, a toll booth of some kind and likely the place's only defence. The walls on either side don't go very far, not even surrounding half of this side.

Escape isn't a world with overworld enemies; there's nothing to defend against. Up north, there were some castles and fortified towns, but more for the sense of fantasy aesthetic over anything else. The starter town, or rather, the Human Fiefdom's capital city - as Lila would put it - had been a large city with a circular wall around the entire thing and a long, bending river through the middle. Yes, that city, the one quite a lot of isekai anime innocuously seem to share. Those walls might have helped a town like this one, but they didn't do much to stop a missile wiping the capital out in one shot during the one-night war. The image of that on the night we watched doomsday, is still clear in my mind.

 Beyond the toll, the town seems to transition to some cobbled roads, suggesting it might have some wealth despite its remote local.

"So what's the plan from here?" Sek asks.

"Hmmm, see that taller building? A town hall or church, maybe? All made of stone, that’s where I'd set my headquarters."
     The others nod. "So here's what I'm thinking; we get up close to the gate, pretend we're peasants from the neighbouring settlements, who haven't realised the town is under new management. We get as close as possible and take one of the guards out. Then we let the other call for help before topping him. When the rest of their guys come running, they'll be forced to funnel through the gate, making it easier to pick them off. This town had little defences, those guys took advantage of that, now so will we."

"What if there are too many to fight?"

"We run of course," I grin, pointing along the length of the wall to where it ends; a number of houses and narrow alleyways between them are what comes next. "Kite the hoard to those alleys and use them like a maze, forcing the drones to follow single file. Meanwhile, while you guys do that, I'll sneak past the commotion and make a beeline for their headquarters. Take out their leaders and they'll hopefully become less coordinated."

"Effectively, one person causes a distraction?"

"A decoy, yup, that's you, Sek," I add bluntly. I have no desire to deceive my boyfriend. If he dones't like the idea, I'll think of another way. I know I'm asking a lot, Sek is the least confident of us as fighters and the one who gets the most nervous. I won't force him.
     All the same, he nods firmly.

"And me?" Eshu points at herself.

"I want you to stick with Sek at first. If you judge it too dangerous to run the enemy around, then stay together, but if not, put all that stealthiness of yours to good use. Run around the town perimeter, they'll no doubt be more road entrances and more guards. Pick 'em all off quietly. What do you think?"

"Sound fun!"

"I had a feeling you'd say that, haha... ugh," I sigh at her violent enthusiasm, but now's not the time for a lecture, "Meet back up with Sek when you're done and head for the tall building. Hopefully I'll be done inside and it can be used as our headquarters instead as we whittle off whatever the enemy still has left. Well, what do you guys think?"

"I think we're all crazy," Sek frowns, but then lightens up a bit, "Though if we pull it off, we'll look pretty badass."

"That's the spirit!" Eshu says, slapping him heartily on the back.

"Alright then, let's do this!"

****

Huddling under some plain rag cloaks, we get exceptionally close to the two robots standing guard at the toll gate before their hollow, tinny voices call us to a stop, "HALT, YOU SHALL PROCEED NO FURTHER. STATE YOUR IDENTITY."

I take a deep breath, ready to charge once Eshu throws her dagger, but a reply beats me to it, "Oh, just here to trade Sonny-Jim," Sek says. For reasons wildly beyond me, impersonating an old lady?

"WHERE IS YOUR PRODUCE?" the drone replies in an almost comically serious deadpan.

"Err, ah, look here now, you kids in your shiny clothes these days, that's nothing to ask a woman."

"YOU WILL STAND STILL AND YOU WILL BE SEARCHED," the other drone replies, stepping towards us.
     
Before Sek can hone his fascinating act any further, Eshu throws aside the cloak and lobs her weapon, while I start my charge. Robot one's crystal snaps instantly, and he begins to tumble forward lifeless. The second turns to raise the alarm, just as we'd hoped. I get close, rearing back my arm, ready to strike, but giving him a moment. To our surprise, there is no radio or such, instead its mouth area changes colour to a sea blue and it yells with the power of a megaphone: "INTRUDER ALERT. ENEMY PRESENCE. UNIT UNDER ATTAC---ARGHHHHH," that last noise is my 'fault'. I ram my guanlet through its back, probably through its voice box. I clench its crystal in my hand, squeezing it tight until smashing it. Robot two hits the deck.

"Alright, quick," I whisper to the others. Sek takes his place under the stone arch, shield raised and sword ready. Eshu and I crouch along the wall’s left side.

Clatter Clatter Clatter
     The sound of metal feet against cobblestones makes its way towards us in no time. With his cloak still on, furling like a cape, Sek looks rather dashing, striking out with his blade as the first enemy tries to come through the gate. A few others shoot off energy blasts, denting the shield just like they did on the rooftop not long ago, but it holds for now at least. Other blasts whiz through the air and hit their own frontline comrade in the narrow confines of the arch - just as planned.

Sword meets the first attacker's chest gem with ease, and it instantly dies like all the rest. Sek raises a foot and kicks out, hitting its... kneecap. I think he meant to hit the waist and knock it back into the oncoming swarm, but it’s still effective. The next unit has to sort of scoot around the first, in which time Sek simply stabs its crystal too.

The next wave of metal men seem to decide it's time to stop playing. One grabs the a fallen comrade's body and simply tosses it aside, another steps right on the head of the first downed unit, crunching the metal of its own ally's face beneath its feet. Its ‘eyes’ shatter and its already thin head compresses, stuck between cobbles beneath and metal above.
      A chainsaw-like sword smacks into the side of Sek's shield, throwing up an impressive shower of sparks that nearly rain down on me and Eshu in hiding, singing nearby grass; the screeching of metal digging through metal is truly egregious.

Sek's sweating a bit, and I desperately want to leap out and help him. My anxiety must show, as Eshu grabs my hand. When I look at her face, she shakes it softly and smiles.
     She's right, of course. Sek might be more nervous than us, but he's carrying out the plan perfectly, he even looks like a gallant knight with cape and sword flowing through the air. To interrupt now would only be to wound his pride, to announce I don't have confidence in him. It wouldn’t be for his sake, but my own weakness. The right thing is to trust in him.

Proving me right, he brings his longsword down hard on the robot’s arm, lopping it off. The chainsaw falls, spluttering to the ground. Next, he takes a few steps back; already half a dozen drones are in the gateway now. Sek marches to the right and begins clattering his sword against the shield, "Come on then, if you're hard enough." His voice shakes a little, but I couldn't be prouder. His reply is a shower of energy blasts filling the air behind him as he sprints away, ducking into one of the many smaller alleys we saw from afar. The drones give chase, and as one turns the same corner, I see Sek's blade briefly poke out and stab through its crystal.

More units flood out, giving chase, until finally a rear guard pair emerges and stops. I hold my breath; perhaps not all of them are so easily duped. When one begins to take in its surroundings, Eshu jumps out. Her blade dances in the moonlight, it almost seems to glint a trail of life as it fells both drones in a second.
    She turns to me, two fingers raised in triumph, "A-ok, V!"