Chapter Text
A deep rumbling emerges from the cracked soil.
Keira Hawke knows the sound well. The machines have burrowed underground to disguise their movements, and now that the Hawke family is beset with exhaustion, pausing for a moment to gather their breath, they will break through the ground and surround them with cold, tactical efficiency.
“Watch the ground, don’t let them flank us!” she cries, throwing an arm out to drag her sister Bethany beside her.
As the exhausted family groups back to back, with their mother Leandra in the center, a shockwave shakes the ground underfoot and mechanical arms start to force themselves through widening cracks in the earth.
Hollering a fierce battle cry, the Hawke siblings let loose an explosive set of attacks. Sisters Bethany and Keira unleash their ‘mancer abilities onto the machines, now crawling towards them with deadly intent. Carver, their younger brother, wields his augmented greatsword with ruthless efficiency, crushing metal as if it were tin foil with his powerful blows.
Leandra, who is protected from all angles by her children, watches the grisly scene in horror as her heart beats erratically in her chest. Even after all they have suffered, the small family must defend their survival with every breath as they traverse the desolate wastelands of FDN-IV in search of sanctuary from the endless rogue machines which kill without mercy or remorse.
Her panicked thoughts are harshly interrupted when Keira cries out in agony. Bethany, ever the caretaker, rushes to her sister’s side but reels back when she sees what has happened.
Before she can process what she’s seeing before her, Bethany unleashes a powerful wave of psychic energy, knocking the machines surrounding them back 20 feet so she can attend to her sister for a brief moment before they come rushing back.
“Oh Maker, Keira,” Bethany gags before she can stop herself. Keira’s right arm has been ripped off her body and is gushing blood onto the reddened soil below.
“It’s but a flesh wound, sister,” tries Keira, though the attempt at speech has left her complexion considerably greyer.
“You’re insane, sweet Maker, this is…it’s ok, just stay still and I’ll try to fix what I can.” Though she can barely see straight through the welling of tears in her eyes, Bethany gathers her wits and shouts over her shoulder.
“CARVER! Cover us, Keira is hurt!”
Carver brings his sword down in a crushing blow, then turns to their mother. “There’s no time, you need to hide somewhere! I promise I won’t be far,” he pants, and rips the chest plate off a nearby fallen droid. “Stay low and cover yourself with this. I’ll be right back!”
And with a cursory glance to make sure their mother is sufficiently disguised, Carver rushes over to his sisters, who are nearly surrounded by advancing machines, some injured but most intact. With a deep breath, he leaps into the fray, giving Bethany the cover she needs to gather her psychic might and start knitting her sister’s torn flesh back together. Keira is still conscious, but only barely, and Bethany expends the rest of her energy to prod her sister’s mind into staying awake.
After a few agonizing minutes, the gaping wound is sealed. Bethany collapses with exhaustion as Carver crushes the power circuit of the last machine surrounding the group. He staggers over to his sisters, but soon recoils as if burned. “Maker…” he says, all color drained from his face.
Bethany pulls herself up with great effort, and Leandra, seeing that the coast is clear, rushes over to her children.
“She’ll live,” she says, breathing laboriously. “But we need to find a ship soon.”
Leandra wails, falling to her knees beside Keira, and mutters tearful prayers as she caresses her daughter’s face.
Carver tries to steel himself. “There’s a dock about six hours from here on foot, he says, checking his scanner. “If we can find a land speeder, we can cut that time in half.”
Bethany raises her head to glare at her brother. “If we’d just left Lothering sooner, we wouldn’t even be in this situation in the first place. Keira needs immediate medical treatment!”
Carver frowns stubbornly back at her. “You know we came as soon as we heard the news. And don’t forget, we deserted to come back to Lothering. Do you know what happens to deserters in the Imperial Army? Let’s just say being overrun by the machines would be a better alternative,” he says darkly.
Bethany gasps at his harsh words. “I can’t believe you would say that in front of mother!” she shrieks, appalled.
Keira groans weakly, still barely holding on to consciousness. “If we just sit here arguing all day, those blasted machines will be upon us sooner than you can say ‘Abominable Intelligence.’ Can’t we hate each other after we escape from this Maker-damned hellscape?”
Leandra wipes her cheeks and nods, taking a deep breath. “Keira is right. We have to make a decision now,” she appears to withdraw into herself for a moment, seeming deep in thought.
“We need to go to FM-XIII. My home-city is there, along with my family’s estate. If we can just get to Kirkwall, your uncle Gamlen will help us. I know it.”
Bethany sighs. “That’s all well and good, but we need to actually get to a dock first, mother. And at the rate we’re going, I don’t know if we have the strength to fight the machines for another six hours.”
“Three if we can find a land speeder,” says Carver.
“ If ,” snaps Bethany pointedly.
■■■
Not long after the siblings’ spat, the family manages to get Keira up on her feet with Carver supporting her, feeling harried by the invisible threat that stalks them at every turn. They start slowly making their way forward, guided by Carver’s military-grade scanner and their pure resolve to survive no matter what.
Not 30 minutes after they start walking again, they are interrupted by a distant thrumming sound, which stops everyone in their tracks.
“What was that?” asks the panicked voice of Leandra.
Bethany, who has taken the lead, looks back at her mother and frowns. “We shouldn’t assume the worst at every little sound, we won’t get anywhere thinking like that. Let’s just keep going.”
Leandra hesitates for a moment, but after a reassuring smile from Bethany, the family keeps making their way along the scorched ground.
They pass by many things that dishearten them, however. Not only the flayed and maimed corpses of other refugees, but the distinct feeling of being watched follows them with every step. The sky, grey and lifeless, seems to close in around them the further they travel, and even the plant life has withered away into nothing. The only thing that remains between the Hawke family and freedom is six hours of a dry, deadly expanse of a planet that seems to be trying its hardest to kill them.
They try to keep their spirits up by recounting stories from childhood, but somehow, the happy memories seem tainted by the suffocating atmosphere of the planet.
And so, after a while, they simply walk in silence and try to keep their thoughts at bay.
■■■
When at last the Hawkes enter an empty clearing that looks defensible enough to make camp, they almost cry with relief. Well, Leandra really does cry, as the toll of the last two days has seemed to finally catch up with her.
The Hawke siblings leave their mother in peace for once, granting her privacy to process her feelings alone, and Bethany and Carver start working on setting up camp while Keira collapses onto the nearest pile of wilted grass she can find and injects herself with another stimpack.
It isn’t long into this artificial peace when they hear it again. A great rumbling sound, this time much closer. Leandra rushes over to Keira, eyes wide and fearful, as Bethany and Carver warily peek through the brambles atop the hill which acts as their cover for the camp.
Then they see it. A horrifying amalgamation of machine parts, standing around 12 feet tall with glowing eye-receptors looking right at them. They scramble down as fast as they can, shouting for Leandra and Keira to find cover right before a massive explosion blows a hole right through the hill, sending the fleeing siblings flying back.
Before they can regain their bearings, the ground shakes with the massive footfalls of the metal abomination as it charges directly through the steaming hole it made.
Bethany is first to act, as Carver’s head was thrown into the ground, stunning him for a few seconds. She grabs her psychic staff and creates a ball of fizzling energy, launching it directly into the towering machine.
But when the attack collides with the machine’s body, it simply fizzles out. In fact, all it seems to have done is piss the thing off. In one massive step, it lurches forward, grabs Bethany off the ground, and squeezes until she stops moving. When it deems that the organic lifeform that attacked it is no longer a threat, it flings her away from itself.
Before anyone can process what just happened, Carver is rushing onto his feet and hacking at the metal monster. Keira stumbles to his side and enhances his blows with psychic energy, heating up the blade so it slices through thick metal like nothing.
But despite the siblings’ efforts, the machine is simply too strong, and Keira and Carver are beaten within an inch of their lives. But before the machine can strike a killing blow, a white light explodes outward from its chest, consuming its metallic body and turning it to a shriveled pile of scrap.
They stare in utter shock as a woman appears behind the fallen mechanical horror, haloed by pure light before it fades away, revealing her features.
“Well, well,” she croons, “What have we here?”