LF Friends, Will Travel

Our Clockwork Children: Chapter 22

Every Terran noticed it at once, every Terran felt the change instantly.

The room was a depressing, affair of oppression and finality. The walls were a deep brown, hardened vines wrapping around each other, large thorns sprouting off each tendril to form a painful, solid barrier. A bare dirt floor: dusty, untreated, and uncared for, much like the occupants inside. 246 Terrans were scattered around the room, a forlorn expression on each of their faces as they sat still and silent in the dimly lit prison.

Rough organic bars separated the Terrans from the three Uhae guards that overlooked them, the heavenly angel-like figures armed with weapons, keeping them in place by stripping them of their will. For the last few weeks, they had stayed here, having been kidnapped and imprisoned from Far-Sa-De, only leaving the prison when removed by their captors to have information extracted from them.

Not that the Uhae had gotten much from the Terrans. A lifetime of easy access to someone's mind meant that their captors didn't even know what they were asking for, and at this point just wanted secrets, whatever that meant. Somewhere in the Uhae database now lay the recipe for "Grandma Rosssine's chicken soup.", alongside thousands of other useless pieces of 'secrets' they had managed to extract from the Terrans, drowning out any useful information.

This was why every Terran in the room immediately noticed the absence of the Uhae's control. It was like a switch, the pressure looming over them for the last few weeks dissipated in a moment, like the first clear breath after an illness, the moment in which they could... move freely.

Something was happening. The sounds of explosions had been echoing around in the distance, the sounds of fighting getting louder and louder. The prisoners didn't know exactly what was going on, but they could guess. People back home had found out where they were, and the Uhae were about to be on the receiving end of a bit of karma and justice.

The Terrans resisted the urge to jump and scream and shout with their newfound personal freedom, instead settling for shared glances and a simultaneous agreement for the same course of action. While their bodies might have been their own, the three armed guards were still staring at them, nervously looking left to right as the noises continued to get louder, the harsh thorny walls and bars still keeping the group from true freedom.

Still, they all silently communicated the same message to each other with just a glance, the same plan, the shared comradery of each of them having gone through the worst holiday since Fyrefest:

As soon as an opportunity shows itself, we make our move.

This would never be the case, however, since something completely unexpected happened.

The noises grew louder, and the first thing the Terrans saw was the look of shock on their guard's faces as they seemingly saw something approaching down the hallway. The first took a chest full of plasma fire, collapsing into a heap as they died. The remaining pair started to raise their weapons at the approaching threat, only to find they were not nearly fast enough to stop the terror that was bearing down on their position.

The android came into view, reaching the second guard at a blistering speed, shoving a bladed hand deep into the chest cavity of the Uhae, the terrified member giving a gurgling scream as he was lifted up off the ground through the blade impaled in their chest. One of the attacker's three sharpened feet dug deep into the lower half of the unfortunate Uhae, the two points of impalement pulling against each other until finally something gave way: The body of the guard, tearing into two.

The remaining Uhae had managed to get their bearings together enough to fire their weapon, the first two shots hitting the wall, the third deflecting off the artificial beast's armour with a glancing blow. As the four insectoid eyes glowed a deep angry red, the Uhae realized their mistake.