Data file R-15: Racazoid vision module

  [Racazoids are equipped with a terrifying ability to see through walls. Simply put, they combine a rudimentary electrosense with infrared, scent tracing, and a hive-mind function to rapidly learn the locations of any humans in the surrounding area. If one sees you, it stands to reason there’ll be more soon. Despite the danger from this, racazoids can still be eliminated in a single shot with proper skill, so good fighters need not worry about this too much.

  Updated: As an addendum, it has been confirmed after study of Flakstorm’s archives that racazoid troopers are handicapped when using this function. It stands to reason that if a racazoid did not have the violent programming of most troopers, but had the same intelligence and equipment, that a group of such a model could eliminate a human battalion with an 18-to-1 kill/casualty ratio. For this reason, Flameye’s advancements in racazoid intelligence are easily his most important projects, as a sufficiently smart racazoid outclasses humans in reaction time and awareness.

  Note from Helios: “Yep, this’s what I used to backtrace Flameye’s hack and find where he took the Shadowbane Amulet coordinates. Good times, those were.”

  Note from Gears: “It was just last year, and we still hated you back then.”

  Note from Helios: “Eh, fair. Anyway, it’s a noteworthy weakness, but Flameye probably patched it up by now, boss.”

  Note from Rasil: “Keep looking.”]

  ***

  Present day...

  Blue Jay halted his story, saying, “Sorry, I need a minute.” Rasil nodded, and Blue Jay reached for the bottle of beer, opening it. He took a long sip and sighed.

  Rasil pushed, perhaps too far, since he wasn’t sure how to deal with Blue Jay’s attitude in the slightest. “Something about Cricket?” Blue Jay proceeded to drink the entire rest of the bottle in one go. “Sorry," Rasil said, leaning back and waiting.

  “I’m ordering another. I’ll be right back," Blue Jay said, standing and walking to the bar.

  “Okay," Rasil replied quietly. He heard a familiar cough from nearby and turned in his seat. Alyssa was sitting several tables away. Apparently, she had also mastered throwing her voice in a crowded room. Rasil was entirely unsurprised.

  Silently, Alyssa pointed to Blue Jay, then tapped her cheek, thigh, and heart in succession. After that, she crossed her arms and waited. It took a moment, not being one of their established codes, but Rasil recognized the question: ‘Is talking with him about this a good idea? It seems insanely personal.’

  Rasil tapped his comlink and turned it on, saying, “Alyssa. No one’s forcing him. He could jump straight to the part with the Paradigms and be done with it.”

  “I know,” Alyssa replied, "but bear in mind who you are. He probably feels an obligation, based on some way it affects you personally, to tell the entire story. I’m just concerned about him.”

  “You know him well?”

  “As a peer, at least. Be prudent, Rasil.”

  “I will.” Rasil agreed. He turned off the comlink quickly as Blue Jay came back with another bottle.

  “No need to hide that you were talking to someone," Blue Jay reminded him. “It’s no secret who you are, and I saw Alyssa Jones walk in about half an hour ago.”

  Rasil answered, “I figured you needed to focus.” Blue Jay then shrugged and sat down. He opened the bottle and held it in one hand.

  “Oh, the cloud of grief,” he mused, “how you ride easily on the wind of change.”

  Rasil perked up and asked, “Where'd you get that phrase?”

  “Life rubbed it in my face. Nothing really ever changes unless it’s bad. It’s time I told you how poorly that infiltration went, and why you should keep your head clear of Flameye’s research.”

  ***

  Two years ago...

  “This way," Phantom said. He slipped through the bushes, low to the ground, with a mortar rifle at the ready. There was a large group of racazoid biters patrolling around the perimeter on the side the team was approaching. “Pack of wolves," Phantom muttered when he saw the biters climbing over each other and yelling constantly.

  “What are wolves?” Cricket whispered.

  “Another time, Cricket." Phantom shrugged it off. He slipped closer to the perimeter, and pointed to a dip in the foundation of the complex. “The whole cannon’s mounted on a mobile base, but there are heat vents that control the thrust energy when the facility moves. We’ll use those to get in, since they're inactive now.”

  “How far down does it—” Mantis began to ask.

  Phantom cut him off, replying, “Five stories; we’re actually already on top of the edge. The racazoids just bury this part once it moves into place. ED2, get in that heat vent and connect to the system. Blue Jay, cover her. Mantis, you’re on me. We’ll watch the biters.”

  Mantis readied his gloves, which generated antigravity funnels to push or pull objects, and asked, “Why take the entry point with a ton of biters wandering around?”

  “The other spots had bruisers. Anyone looking to have their bones crushed today?” The entire team gave a resounding ‘no’ vote. “Figured, move out, everyone.”

  Blue Jay moved for the vent, and ED2 crawled just behind him. When they reached it, ED2 dropped down and pulled out a folding computer array. “Scanning now," she said. “Got the system. It’s a small backdoor, but the spotlights should blink off in a moment.” Right on cue, the spotlights and scanner around the base turned off.

  It wasn’t unnoticed. One of the troopers on a raised platform saw the action and began looking around. Phantom piped in, “Improvising a decoy. Blue Jay, get that smart one. Mantis, suppress and cover Cricket as we go for the door.”

  “Roger that," Blue Jay said. He aimed his gauntlet, and charged his energy pack. The tube lit up, and he felt the energy enter the gauntlet’s chamber. He breathed, condensed the crystal, and fired a spike into the head of the trooper. “Smart one down.”

  “Decoy ready," Phantom signaled. He aimed his mortar rifle and fired an explosive projectile that soared over the complex in an arc, almost invisible in its small form. It exploded with a thunderous sound on the opposite side of the cannon. The racazoid biters curiously went to investigate the sound.

  “Door’s open, everyone," ED2 said. A nearby maintenance door flipped open, and Phantom, Mantis, and Cricket sprinted inside, unseen by the racazoid group. ED2 tapped Blue Jay and opened a vent hatch inside their little checkpoint. “Follow me. We’ll come out in sublevel two.” Blue Jay nodded, and they both crawled through the shaft and into the underground facility of the seismic cannon.

  Blue Jay, looking back, thought he saw a pair of eyes watching him from behind the vent’s pipes...

  ***

  “Here we are. The server room should be this way," ED2 said. She landed on her feet from the fall out of the ceiling and headed down an empty hallway. Blue Jay followed behind her, gauntlets ready. There were no guards in here, but Blue Jay imagined the maze was only understandable to a racazoid, or a hacker.

  “I’d ask why we’re going to the server room, but you’re thriving in this situation, I’m sure,” Blue Jay commented.

  ED2 laughed. “You’re not wrong. A bit of advice: we may have to act as the decoy prong so Phantom’s little band can reach the firing controls.”

  “He failed to mention that detail...”

  “Because you would be assigned here anyway. You’re the best fighter in the group, and Phantom knows it. Meanwhile, I can definitely shoot a gun, but my forte is avoiding direct conflict,” ED2 explained. Blue Jay nodded in response. A bit of pragmatism was warranted.

  A distant scraping sound shocked them both, and Blue Jay asked, “Any idea what that was?”

  “Probably ammunition storage containers," ED2 said, even while giving a loose shrug. She turned down a tighter hallway and found a server room door with a large file lock beside it. “It might require some time to crack the door lock, but we still have about an hour and a half until the security window arrives.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  Blue Jay nodded. He had momentarily forgotten about the stall before security could even be hacked. He charged up and put his back to the door, aiming down both hallways of the T-shaped intersection to guard her. Over his comlink, he heard, “Phantom, we have a problem.”

  ***

  “Phantom, we have a problem,” Mantis said. Phantom came to look, and found what he had referred to.

  “Oh, my,” Phantom exclaimed as he looked at the barricade before them. Pieces of scrap metal had been piled as a wall covering the hallway. Jagged edges served as a deterrent, no organization having been applied to the pile. Mantis ran down another passage and found the same type of barricade looming there. “This is a problem. We need to be through here when the window arrives, or the hack is useless.”

  Cricket stepped forward and said, “I don’t see the problem. I could whack that thing apart instantly.”

  “Not quietly,” Mantis reminded. “This is—” He turned around, and saw a barricade.

  How?

  They were now surrounded, entirely, by barricades that weren’t there before. The blood left Phantom’s face in an instant when he realized the obvious.

  “Something knows we’re here,” he warned.

  “How is that possible?” Blue Jay asked.

  “I don’t know how, but it’s true.”

  “A third party?” ED2 suggested.

  “No way. If this cannon fired, human civilization here would fall in a month. No third party would make our job harder like this. Racazoids, definitely.”

  “Roger, high alert,” Blue Jay said. Phantom went back to looking at the original barricade.

  “Mantis,” he ordered, “pull it apart slowly. If there are no alarms, then whatever’s aware of us hasn’t triggered any sensors yet, and we shouldn’t force that move.” Mantis nodded and lifted his gloves, slowly shifting the lighter pieces out of the pile. “Blue Jay, protect ED2 carefully. Something might be toying with us to go after her and stop the hack.”

  “Understood," Blue Jay responded.

  ***

  Blue Jay crouched down while waiting, and ED2 said, “Passive codebreaker to test the codes; this’ll be a few minutes.” She set her computer to crack the lock once it was ready and sat down beside Blue Jay. “Might be a bad time to talk, but I wanted to ask you something.” Blue Jay looked at her silently, shrugging as an invitation for her to continue. “How did you get your mercenary name?”

  “Kill-stealing, taking others’ bounties. Back on earth, blue jays apparently have this habit of flying up to other birds and taking their food from them. Also, the color fits me pretty well; deep blue is my natural energy color,” Blue Jay explained.

  “That’s interesting,” ED2 commented.

  “No, it’s not. There are a thousand mercenaries with more interesting stories than me stealing credit and getting a derogatory mercenary name.”

  “But there’s only one of you. Don’t insult yourself with comparisons,” she reassured. Blue Jay was reminded of Shadow Veil with how she said that, and nodded slightly to show the advice had been taken. It was a decent point, even if she was still wrong about his mercenary name. He charged up again when he heard the scraping sound. “Think that’s the thing that freaked out the others?” ED2 asked.

  “Maybe.” Blue Jay got up to look down the hallways, while ED2 checked the door. Blue Jay heard the scraping three more times. It was moving in a direction. “Phantom, potential moving contact. It’s outside visual range, but definitely alive. You hear the same scraping?”

  “Negative, Blue Jay. The thing might be patrolling in your area," Phantom answered. Blue Jay listened closer, and turned to follow the scraping noise. His electrosense didn’t travel through these walls, likely from a jammer system or extremely dense, non-conductive metals, so he couldn’t directly see it. Where was it moving to? He turned until the scraping stopped, and he was staring at the server room door. The scraping started up again, suddenly coming closer. It sounded about thirty feet away.

  Blue Jay said, “ED2, that thing’s through—” He never got to finish. The door swung open, and a racazoid stood in the doorway. Blue Jay didn’t take time to analyze and instead grabbed the shocked ED2 by the shoulders. He yanked her clear just as the racazoid stabbed a trident in her direction and hit the floor with a crunching sound.

  It shrieked, pulling back and thrusting again, but Blue Jay was already running away, ED2 on his back. “I’m lucky you’re lightweight, Ella," Blue Jay remarked. She nodded, heart racing from the realization that she had nearly been impaled. “Phantom, we’ve had physical contact! This thing is a racazoid, a trident wielder, and very fast when it wants to be!” Blue Jay spoke the final phrase as another trident smashed through a wall in front of him, and he stopped just short of decapitating himself on the prongs. It pulled back into the hole.

  ED2 dropped from his back and pulled out a pistol, firing multiple times into the hole from the trident, and could hear the bullets connecting, but not damaging anything. Blue Jay looked back and saw the original running toward them, moving on all fours like some nightmare-fueled spider.

  Blue Jay noticed now that this racazoid, likely one of several, considering the second trident, was wingless and was skinnier than the other racazoids. It carried the double-sided trident via a magnetic sheath on its back and had a smooth, semicircular visor covering its face. The glowing orange eyes could be seen shining through the visor, but Blue Jay couldn’t see any discernible mouth.

  A specialized variant, likely. Blue Jay aimed and fired toward its long arms, sending four crystals rapidly spinning toward it. Unfortunately, the crystals bounced off the light plating. “How?” he muttered. Those crystals normally pierced medium-strength armor! “Ella, be careful,” he warned as he charged a stronger volley. ED2 nodded, still firing into the hole. She screamed as a trident rammed through the wall in a different spot, and a clawed hand sliced through the floor to drag her off her feet. “NO!” Blue Jay screamed as he condensed a crystal blade protruding from his gauntlet's barrel. The thing attacking him could wait.

  Ten seconds until the pursuer would arrive. He jabbed the crystal blade into the arm while pulling ED2 to loosen its grip. The blade struck at the wrist and cut some wires, but the hand held on.

  Seven seconds until the pursuer would arrive. Blue Jay stabbed repeatedly and sliced into the racazoid’s joint, severing the hand while it was still attached to ED2.

  Five seconds until the pursuer would arrive. He slid away from the wall while pulling ED2 with him, and continued running down the passageway when she stood.

  “Go! I’ll join you soon!” Blue Jay ordered. He turned.

  Two seconds until the pursuer would arrive. Blue Jay fired a volley into the joints he had seen while striking the other’s hand. One of the crystals connected with the wires and made the racazoid slow.

  One second until it would—a trident slammed down from the ceiling. Blue Jay jumped back to dodge. There were three now, maybe four. He felt a prong catch his hood as he ducked beneath two more tridents passing over him. There were too many, and he couldn’t waste time getting surrounded! Charging his gauntlets to the limit, he created blades on either side and sprinted toward the first of the group. It swung its trident, but he slipped to the side and brought his shoulder into the racazoid. It staggered back, and he grabbed a leg, slashing the lower section off with his blades.

  A metallic shriek preceded a claw for his face that he avoided by body slamming the racazoid. He grabbed its neck. “You’ve probably taken enough humans by now. You won’t take me!” He gripped its chin and twisted to the side, snapping the monster’s spine. It dropped lifelessly to the floor.

  Blue Jay turned back around and saw another identical racazoid peeking through a wall. He shot a crystal ineffectually into the visor and ran as it reached for its trident. “ED2, get us to Phantom! Subtlety is no longer a priority!”

  Phantom grunted into his comlink, “You’re having no worse of a time than we are, I’m afraid...”

  ***

  “Come on, get it off me!” Mantis cried as the racazoids pulled at his arms. Were they trying to tear them from their sockets? Cricket was swinging at them with his bat, but the blows did nothing.

  “Hang on!” Phantom yelled, deflecting a trident strike from the one he was dueling. They were all identical... He ran for Mantis and overcharged his rifle, firing bursts into the racazoid on one side. He found a weak point in the collarbone area of its armor and scored a breaker hit that made the racazoid stumble backward, letting go.

  He then tapped Cricket’s shoulder and performed an energy transfer, lending his power to the younger boy. “Go for the collarbone! It scores a breaker!” Cricket nodded and shouted a battle cry as he swung for the second racazoid and struck the weak point. He followed through after the breaker hit and popped the head off with his swing.

  Phantom took aim at the stunned one and blasted it in the chest plate with his rifle. The metal shattered, but the racazoid lifted its trident and swung again, catching Phantom in the shoulder and throwing him across the room. Phantom merely smiled in response, twisting in midair and holding his rifle behind him. The metal smacked against the racazoid that had previously dueled him, and acted as a shield.

  Phantom fired and used the recoil of his rifle to jump over the racazoid and land behind it. He took aim; the two racazoids lined up in his sights. “Take this, vermin!” he shouted, his eyes glowing red as he used his critical strike, [Executioner’s Blade]. His gun barrel extended to either side into a crossbow shape and channeled a horizontal slicing projectile.

  He released it, and the projectile flew forward to cut through the two racazoids. Both of them spasmed in shock as they were split apart at the hip. Phantom then followed up with a burst to the head of each one, blowing the metal apart as they shrieked in rage.

  He exhaled, “You two okay? Mantis? Cricket?” He turned and saw Cricket nod readily. Mantis gave a thumbs up, and began pulling himself off the ground with his injured arms. He fell, and Phantom caught his shoulder to help him stand. “Easy. The fight’s done.”

  “They know me. They know all of us," Mantis whispered gravely.

  “What makes you say that?”

  “They tried to take my arms and rip them off. They tried to limit your range and make you hit yourself with explosions. Finally, they underestimated the kid based on his size. Sounds like prior knowledge, doesn’t it?”

  “But if it was deliberate, why only send three for us? By the sound of what Blue Jay was going through down there, they have more.”

  “He’s the best fighter,” Mantis admitted. “They wanted to kill him first.” He leaned against the wall. “We must have surprised them with our own relative skill.” Phantom began counting on his fingers. “What are you doing, Phantom?”

  “Counting them. Blue Jay, you still there?”

  “Yeah, I’m good, and so is ED2.”

  “Brilliant. How many identical racazoids did you count?”

  “Six total, why?” Blue Jay asked. Phantom counted the dead ones, and it added up to... nine. Nine identical racazoids of heightened intelligence, each wielding double-sided tridents. Could it be?

  “Everyone, listen up. We may be dealing with an upgraded version of the Paradigms.”

  “Paradigms?” Cricket asked, his eyebrows raised.

  “An old concept idea I found in a stolen racazoid file. Ten identical racazoids that serve Flameye directly and act as trackers for him. They were supposed to wield these same tridents and were built for recon rather than direct combat. That being said, these are likely a new armored version.”

  “But,” Mantis started. “If there are ten, and we found nine so far, then where is the last one?”

  Those would be the final words he would ever speak...