Shadowbane

I slid along the ice until I came to a complete stop.

"......"

Nothing on the right... Nothing on the left... Is it behind me?

I looked behind me and saw nothing. At this point I still wasn't sure of what spooked me into silence, but I remained motionless all the same for at least another twenty seconds until I finally saw it.

Ahh, so that's what it was...

I had been running on the frozen part of the sea about one hundred yards away from the shore since I assumed it'd be safest out here, but apparently that wasn't the case. Directly in front of me about fifty yards away I could see the air slightly shimmering as something inched its way in my direction.

This is either a Stalker or a Lurker. Uncle showed me two different machines that could stealth, but the only thing they have in common is that they both stealth and move slowly while their stealth remains active. Unfortunately, it's really hard to know which one you're dealing with until they show themselves. There are ways to reveal them or make sure a Stalker isn't, well, stalking you, but I don't have the tools required for that, and unless something goes terribly wrong I shouldn't have to deal with them anyway. Although, Uncle did say that the Stalkers have really powerful soul detectors, so just in case...

I ran much farther out toward the sea before running toward the west again. I kept an eye on the shimmering figure and it didn't appear to be doing anything differently. It was still slumbering along toward the east.

So this is Fort Weiss... I wasn't sure of what to expect, but I know that 'joyful banter' was probably last on my list. I thought one of these forts would be a miserable hell hole, but I arrived around the same time a convoy did, and right now they're all laughing with the gate guards about something that happened on their journey here.

I removed my veil and walked toward the group outside of the gate. The guards spotted me right away but they didn't train their weapons on me, nor were they spooked like the last time I appeared out of nowhere.

"Reimia Velrune? Maya is waiting for you above." One of the guards said as I reached the group. He made a sign with his hands toward the men on top of the walls and then told me I was 'all clear for entry'.

Ahh, so they had been expecting me. I figured they were, but I didn't know they knew what I looked like or that I'd be walking out of the snow alone. The convoy definitely didn't know, that much is obvious. They're no longer laughing and looking at me like I'm a ghost.

I thanked the guard and then made my way up the ramp, which turned out to be a very long ramp. This was surprising since the fort wasn't propped up on a mountain or hill, it was built right on the ground level.

I reached the top of the ramp and found myself in a wide open courtyard. Judging from its size, it made up at least seventy percent of the forts upper level. There was a building on the right side, but all things considered this was far more open than I had expected. However, the most surprising part of all was how warm it was. There was no roof, and I could see snow falling onto the courtyard even now, but it was melting soon after it landed. It feels like a warm summer day in here... I'm curious to see if this is tech or magic related.

"Holy shit, I can't believe you really came here alone..." A voice from my right said. Looking over there I saw a young man in casual wear laying down on a foldable chair that was fully spread out. He was wearing large sunglasses, which was a rare sight for me, and they especially stood out in this environment that rarely saw the sun or Mother.

I walked up to the man, "I did, and I assume you're from Maya's group?"

"That's right! I was told to keep an eye out for you since your console said you were getting close, so I thought you came with the convoy, but I've been watching the gate through these glasses you see, so imagine my shock when you weren't in the convoy but instead walking out of the damned snow like a wraith."

He rolled off the chair-bed-thing and stood up before motioning for me to follow him toward the lone building behind him.

"Maya was the only one who actually believed you'd show up here alone and get the emblems. I sure as hell didn't think you would, but after seeing you walk up to the fort alone, well---"

He continued speaking about his group while I looked around the courtyard. Most of the men and women were just lounging around. In fact, there was even a large sports match going on between thirty different people.

"So carefree... Is it always like this in the forts?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean how laid back it is? Nah, Fort Jarvil is nothing like this one or the Forts in the green zone. And it's not like we aren't ready. It only takes a moment to run into the comm center here and gear up. Stalkers don't come here and Lurkers are destroyed by the automated defenses, so nothing can sneak up on us anyway." He said as he lead me into the 'comm center'.

The first room was indeed designed solely around 'gearing up'. There were hundreds of power armor lining the walls and placed in contraptions that hung down from the ceiling. I only saw one Tyranium armor suit, but there were about a dozen different kinds inside the room. Should I be investing in power armor? I feel like my armor is great as is but if I used my ability to increase the defenses of a power armor, maybe it'd be crazy powerful as a result? Something to consider in the future.

He led me down a set of stairs and through several hallways before finally stopping in front of a door that automatically opened for us. "This is it, have fun. I need to go help that convoy unload now that my job here is done."

I watched the man walk back the way we came for a moment before entering the room. Inside there was only one person, a tall black muscular woman sitting on a chair with her eyes closed.

The room itself was clearly designed for units to live inside. The left side had ten bunk beds with sacks of clothes, equipment, and other goods nearby belonging to their residents. While the middle of the room had a large table with an electronic 3d map rising up from it. And there were all sorts of other needs they may require, like a TV, bathroom, etc.

"Well shit, I still had my doubts but here you are." Maya said as her eyes opened and focused on me.

"Your squad member there said you're the only person here who believed I'd actually show up."

She grinned, "Of course I'm the only one! No one else was going to believe that bullshit story my brother told me, but I know he wouldn't lie about something like this, not him. So there was only one conclusion. You were going to come here alone, and then you were going to go get those shitty emblems." She shook her head and laughed, "Fucking insane... I don't know how you plan on doing it, but I won't push you for information. All that matter is that you do it and that your Uncle pays me, and he's already done that."

She stood up and walked over to the map. I approached it from the other side as she pushed a few keys on the console attached to the side of the table. After a slight delay the map expanded out and showed three different routes.

"Alright, now listen up, ghost girl." She said, before tracing a route that went from Fort Weiss to the Hothgar emblem, and then straight northwest to the Inoue emblem, "This is route A. If you believe you can do it without needing to stop by Fort Jarvil, then I suggest you take this route."

"Any idea of what I'll find? Over sixty percent of the route is shrouded. That means no one has been there or lived to tell the tale, right?"

"Correct, which means I have no fucking clue of what you'll find. BUT, I am suggesting this route because of this right here." She highlighted a large stretch of the route that wasn't shrouded, "Risk takers go to Jarvil so they can enter this stretch of land right here. It's full of ruins and for some reason it's strangely devoid of machines. It's still possible to run into them of course, and it's close to the dead zone so when groups do run into machines, they almost always perish. But this is where dozens of Tyranium suits were found a few years back, and all sorts of other relics, including a new weapon two months ago that had never been seen until now. So the fuckers come in by the dozens trying their luck at making it rich every now and then."

"So I should be pretty safe during this stretch of the journey, and it does constitute at least twenty-five percent of the distance I'll need to cover. Not a lot, but not a low amount either."

Maya shrugged, "It's better than the route from Jarvil, which is only mapped thanks to a single group of people who had do battle multiple times to even reach the point where they disappeared. Still though, the choice is yours."

"And how much distance is it from here to the Inoue emblem? As opposed to Jarvil I mean."

After a little bit of typing on her end some numbers popped up on all of the routes.

One hundred and eighty seven miles from Jarvil, while the full route from here to both emblems is two hundred and thirteen. Ahh, the route from here definitely saves me some time. Not a lot, and it takes me away from the convoys as I head deeper into shrouded lands, but I might as well try it.

"Alright, I'm going to take route A in a few days. You mind if I sleep here? I don't need to be comfortable, I can just pass out in the corner there."

Maya pointed toward a bunk with no supplies next to it, "Take that one. No one is using it anyway and I don't expect anyone to suddenly join my unit out of nowhere."

I thanked Maya and walked over to the bunk before taking my backpack off and sticking it to my chest. Once it was secure I laid down on the bed and told my core to turn off until I was at max strength.

I opened my eyes and rolled out of bed. After a quick glance around I saw Maya was still in the room watching TV with three men. One of them saw me waking up and jutted his thumb at me so Maya could see it. She looked back at me and sighed, "'Few days' my ass! I had to call my brother and ask him why you weren't waking up. You've been out for almost a week! I would've assumed you were dead if your Uncle didn't say that you were fine. What a weird fucking hybrid you are..."

"Ahh, sorry about that. I really should have warned you beforehand." I stuck the backpack onto my back again and looked around the room for some food but couldn't find any. "You uh, have anything to eat? Or is there a cafeteria here?"

"There's a mess hall, but can you pay for yourself? After seeing what you consider 'sleeping', I have a bad feeling that your idea of eating is going to be way different from my own." Maya said.

... She's not wrong. I was planning on gorging myself so I wouldn't need to use my rations for a long time.

Maya had one of her men show me to the mess hall, which looked almost identical to Kellog's mess hall. It was pretty much the same room design but with more space in it and the walls made of a strange alloy instead of stone. I felt a kind of whiplash seeing something so similar to a place so far away in my past.

One of the ladies at the counter looked at me with disbelief when I told her what I wanted, but she completed the order all the same, and even brought it out herself about an hour later(the mess hall was filled with people eating).

The lady watched me for a bit to make sure I was actually going to eat all of the food I ordered, and when she realized I was she ran back to the counter where I could see her giggling with the other ladies at the counter. I'm sure it looks strange, but hey, looking strange means nothing compared to being able to fill up on weeks worth of food.

Once I was done I stood up and left the mess hall, but I didn't go back to Maya's room, I went straight out into the courtyard and then left the fort entirely. This was only a waystation for me, and hopefully the last one I need to go to.

Arkaios said I could use his reset for transportation, and I can still feel him connected to my soul, so if I probe it I assume he'll bring me back? At least I hope that's what will happen. It'll save me a ton of time if so.

The only thing that could go wrong with this plan is if the emblems have souls in them. From what I remember of the reset in Urza, my artifact armor was the only inanimate object resetting because it was made from a soul. No one said the emblems were made in the same manner as artifact equipment is, so they most likely don't have souls embedded in them.

One of the convoys was heading north to Jarvil and they were more than happy to let me ride on the roof with another group of mercs. I figured instead of going northwest through a shrouded path, I could go at it directly from the west, the same way most of the other attempts had been done. They all failed because a Screecher managed to get away from them. It's rife with destroyed buildings and lots of hiding places, but that shouldn't be an issue for me.

The ride wasn't uneventful by any means, but if something did happen, it was over fast. They sniped a couple of Screechers before they became a problem, and even took out a couple of Lurkers through their stealth.

The man who killed them both let me use his gun for a bit. It was a large rifle with a scope that would highlight Lurkers and Stalkers. Apparently it was going to take him another ten years to pay it off because of how sought after this specific weapon was, and he was stressed out every day over the idea of losing it.

I need to visit the weapon shops when I'm back in town. I didn't know they had a monthly payment system. Although my Uncle would probably buy me the best weapons there anyway... I'd like to get my hands on the energy weapon I used in the Abyss. That God of Change had only just been born so it was kind of weak, but even so, it's still impressive that the gun ripped right through him.

A few days later we reached an outpost that was used as the halfway point between Weiss and Jarvil. Which also served as the point where everyone went west toward Hothgar's emblem.

After saying goodbye to the convoy I turned invisible and began running west. It didn't take me long to reach the areas full of destroyed buildings. It was just rubble and toppled buildings everywhere.

It's pretty obvious why the other groups were ambushed so easily here, but it's not like they had better options. They tried other paths, even coming from Jarvil, but it was rubble everywhere. This area is quite different from the place I originally slept in after landing in Caedrus. The homes over there were falling apart from being abandoned for centuries, while these ones were clearly destroyed by something.

I saw something shimmering ahead of me. It was moving away from me, but even so I pivoted to the left toward a large toppled building nearby.

As I was running through the snow I suddenly stepped onto a very light layer of snow and hit something below it. Something made of metal.

Immediately whatever I had just stepped on bursted out of the snow, flinging me forward toward the toppled building.

I kept my eyes on my potential ambusher as I landed on the side of the building(making my feet stick to it in the process). It was easy to identify the machine thanks to the big chainsword it was wielding in its right hand. A butcher... The fucker was hiding in the snow. My Uncle warned me about this but god damn, I didn't think it'd happen so fast.

It was turning every which way trying to find whatever had just stepped on it, and when it couldn't find me it began to cut into everything and anything around it. I had seen the footage my Uncle showed me but it was still surprising just how loud its sword was when its serrated parts began to spin around the blade. I couldn't hear anything except the sword cutting through rock, steel, and everything else nearby.

I waited on the wall for a few minutes, watching it rampage until it whipped toward the northeast and sprinted away. Did it hear something? It didn't look like a random action, but at least it's gone.

I dropped down onto the concrete below and ran into the toppled building. Its corridor was at a weird slant toward the right but it had somehow been connected to multiple other toppled buildings at each end. I was able to run forward for quite a while before it became apparent that something had turned these fallen buildings into a long slanted walkway, but fortunately I didn't run into any machines.

I eventually came out the other end and leaped up onto a nearby two story home with a roof that had mostly crumbled below. I shimmied around the remaining portion until I reached the other side and then took a long look at the path ahead of me.

Rubble... Rubble... And more rubble. This place is a mess. I'm surprised anyone tried to get to the emblem if they had to go through places like this to get there. There's no way in hell I'd be here if I couldn't turn invisible and was unable to block most soul scanners.

Far in the distance I caught site of something black sticking out of a toppled buildings window. It wasn't moving, but I knew what it was from its shape. It was one of the Sniper machines. Uncle said they can see through stealth technology, so these are the ones I need to look out for the most, since we don't know if their sensors are enough to see me as well. But their weapon doesn't fire instantly, and you can see it charging up so if I keep an eye on it I'll be fine even if it does shoot at me.

I jumped to the next rooftop, and then the next, making my way northwest on a route that'd pass by the sniper's trajectory. I couldn't see any other machines nearby so this was the perfect testing ground.

I landed on a home that was still far to the right of where it was currently aiming, and the gun suddenly spun in my direction and stopped.

I went completely still and stared at the gun, waiting for the supposed 'charge up', but it didn't come. Instead the gun just sat there, looking in my direction, unmoving.

At first I didn't understand why it wasn't firing, but that's when I saw the snow had crumbled a little on this roof's ceiling when I landed. Part of it crumbled onto the outside and that's what must have caught its attention.

Testing this, I slowly moved forward to the other end of the roof, and the gun didn't move. It couldn't see my footsteps thanks to the railing, as even I can't prevent myself from leaving some imprints in the snow, sadly enough. It'd be easier if I got rid of my heavy armor, but I wasn't about to do that.

Since the gun wasn't following me, I jumped to the side of the building that would hide me from the sniper, and once I hit the ground I immediately jumped to another building ahead of me. The test was done, so now all I needed to do was hide my footsteps from the machine and I'd be fine. This is going to take much longer than I expected. I only just started and I've already ran into three machines...

About seven days later I was finally staring at a massive rectangular building that was still intact. Yeah... Much longer than I expected it to take, but at least I'm here.

I checked the console one last time, and the database said that the emblem was in the building ahead of me.

It used to be a car maker factory apparently. I watched some footage of one before coming out here, so I have a decent idea of what to expect, but the problem is that the database only says that it's in there somewhere. Looking at past emblem mission data, two of them took forever to complete even with access to the buildings. They're either really easy to find, as in literally just laying on a random table, or a nightmare to find. Either way, I'll know soon enough.

I walked forward, keeping an eye on my surroundings as I went, but the area was covered in abandoned vehicles, so my vision was limited. Not that this scenario was much different from the entire path I had to tread to get here.