Chapter 31 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 31 — Drop troopers; Tripper

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ramp-Up · Previous: Chapter 30 — Comrades · Next: Chapter 32 — King Rust arrives · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

We’d deliberately placed the barracks building on the lip of the hill so the enemy wouldn’

Summary

From the barracks roof — the invisible dreadnaught's body and mask into Carl's inventory — Tina ploughs into the paratroopers, sparks flying as she bites through armour. They are all machines or nearly: Gunnery Sergeant X2, Reaver Security Force Cyborg Drop Trooper, level 53, once Mr Jake Tortokai, twenty-three enhancements, a four-hundred-cycle journey to citizenship ended. The AI's card apologises for the 'Spelljammer/Warhammer bullshit', says it has rejected the Valtay's plans for the eleventh floor and that in Cronus-class heavy armour these men would already have won, and explains the Reaver deal: lose your body for a free first upgrade, then work for free evicting settlers from land leases to earn the rest, one upgrade per three-cycle deployment; these are Warlord Fang's personal guard, 'But they should not be underestimated.' Hob-lobbers stick in the enemy's One Way shields; smoke on both sides; Victory watches from the roof corner with an antlered adjutant Carl does not know. Alpha cards deploy — a minotaur, a griffin, an owl-faced robed thing, a god on a peacock, and a 1970s Death Cult Leader with Uzi Jesus's voice who complains his spells are off and stays on the roof. Donut: 'Invisible, behind you!' Carl's bare fist meets an armoured chest; a dreadnaught named J IronFjord loses his mask and then his face under the gauntlet while everyone watches: 'The Scavenger's Daughter has been fed. Unleash her wrath.' Jamal rolls down the hill without legs and comes up out of the smoke with a mercenary in his mouth. Carl's trap sense lights up: the enemy are arming automatons with proximity-triggered satchels. 'You're in my playground now.' He casts Tripper. The blast kicks everyone off their feet but the Steady, blows Rend off the roof, leaves a crater where the automatons were and every cyborg on its back; Tina in the red, crying for her mother, Carl imagines; no veteran dead; the crawlers and NPCs up first, 'and in a situation like this, he who recovers fastest, wins.' 'I could really use a nice, refreshing drink right about now. Want to join me?' says the cult leader. Lonnie, the last worn mage, runs for the castle supernaturally fast; Carl activates Daughter's Kiss and drops on him from the second storey. Afterwards: the Reaver door is gone, but the bait shop must be isolated or killed; the main force is fifteen minutes out with its armour and its orcs, Prince Stalwart at their head by Florin's report; Samantha arrives covered in leaves — 'Louis accidentally dropped me out of his airplane' — while Tina, Rend and Mongo eat the meat out of the androids like a crab bake and Kiwi shouts at her daughter to come inside. 'That was just the preview.'

Characters

• Carl — Beats a dreadnaught faceless on a roof; sets off the enemy's own bombs with Tripper.
• Big Tina — Into the cyborgs; on her back, crying for her mother by Carl's guess; eating them afterwards.
• Princess Donut — Alpha cards; 'behind you!'
• Jamal — Hops without legs after all.
• Samantha — Dropped from a bomber, dusty, asking about the party.
• Baroness Victory — On a roof corner with an antlered stranger.
• Prince Stalwart — Reported at the head of the main force.
• The System AI — Apologises for the genre, and has rejected the Valtay's eleventh-floor plans.

Locations

• The FUPA — The barracks roof; a crater at the bottom of the hill.

Motifs

• The Reavers — Cyborg drop troopers, the citizenship grind, Warlord Fang's guard.
• Explosives — Tripper on someone else's satchels.
• The mobs are victims — 'Most were just hungry and without hope or direction.'