Cyberdyne of the Night's Watch

Chapter 15

Within only a few minutes, Yoren and his men settled in for the evening. Cyberdyne went back into the forest and came out dragging an old log large enough to make a decent canoe out of. Then, as the new Nights Watch recruits looked on in amazement, he broke the thing into firewood with his bare hands. "Blimey," one of them muttered as Cyberdyne's hand cracked through the log. Once the fires got going, Cyberdyne submersed himself in the river and emerged with a whole bag full of still-wriggling fish for everyone to eat. The other men were so fascinated that they had forgotten all about unloading their cart, so Cyberdyne did that too.

But it gave Jon and Arya a bit of time to get caught up without everyone else listening in. Except for Yoren and this Gendry fellow, no one in the group knew Arya's true identity. She told Jon everything that had happened in the Red Keep, starting from their arrival in King's Landing up until Joffrey beheaded their father. Some of it had filtered up to the North by word of mouth or raven's wing, but Jon did not know many of the details. And by the end of the story, he found himself wishing that he had gone with Robb's army. Every word out of Arya's mouth made him want to unleash Cyberdyne on King Joffrey and his court. Vows be damned.

"Well, what now?" he asked. "Yoren is taking you back to Winterfell, but after that... what?"

"I don't *want* to go back to Winterfell," she said. There was a sudden ferocity in her voice that took Jon aback for a moment. "I want to kill them. Joffrey, and Queen Cersei, and the Hound, and all the rest of them! Take me back to King's Landing with you!"

"I'm not going there to *kill* them, Arya," Jon said. But even as he said it, he wondered if it was true. After everything Arya told him, he *did* want them dead now. And with Cyberdyne, he could see it done. "I have to go convince them to send aid to the Wall." Arya had done all the talking, so much so that Jon hadn't even filled her in on the Wights that had risen from the dead.

Arya didn't get a chance to answer. The sound of voices drifted down the road, and Jon turned to see torches through the trees nearby. Yoren set down his half-eaten fish and got up from his spot by the fire. The chatter and conversation around the camp quieted as everyone turned to watch. Nearly two dozen soldiers in gold cloaks and heavy plate armor rode up to Yoren, who waited for them in the middle of the road.

"The gold cloaks!" Arya whispered. Across the camp, Gendry stood and came over to where Jon and Arya sat.

"Stay here," Jon ordered Arya. "And you, look after her should anything happen," he told Gendry. "Cyberdyne, with me."

They joined Yoren as the head soldier dismounted and gave Yoren a folded piece of paper, sealed with red wax and stamped with the Lannister lion crest. "Straight from Lord Slynt himself." Behind him, a dozen more of the gold cloaks got off of their horses and came to form a loose semi-circle around Jon, Yoren, and Cyberdyne.

Yoren snorted. "*Lord* Slynt? Is that what that little grub is calling himself these days?"

"His Royal Higness King Joffrey *personally* gave Lord Slynt title to Harrenhal and the..."

"Don't care," Yoren interrupted, breaking the seal and unfolding the paper. "Blah blah, his highness commands blah blah blah." He crumpled up the paper and tossed it back in the face of the head gold cloak. "Look, I told you blokes yesterday. These men are destined for the Wall, and are no longer subject to the laws of the King, all right?"

The gold cloak glared, then turned to Jon. "Another crow? You weren't with this lot a few days ago. What's your name, boy?"

"He's no one," Yoren said, a bit too quickly. The gold cloak's eyebrows arched up a bit, and he looked Jon over. "He's my squire."

"My name is Jon Snow," Jon corrected him. "Son of Eddard Stark." He stepped in front of Yoren, and Cyberdyne stepped forward too. Part of him knew that it was a bad idea, but the other part of him didn't care. That other part of him *wanted* to provoke the gold cloaks, just for some small bit of revenge for what they'd done to his father. And they didn't know what Cyberdyne could do.

"Leave this one alive, then, boys!" the gold cloak said, reaching for his sword.

The blade made it halfway out of the scabbard before Cyderdyne smashed his head in with one blow. The steel helmet just folded inward like paper and the man crumpled to the ground. Cyberdyne snatched the sword hilt out of the man's hand and let gravity do the rest of the work to draw the blade. Two more gold cloaks lost their heads before any of them even knew what happened. Yoren paused with his own sword halfway out of its scabbard. He intended to join the fray but was so in awe of seeing Cyberdyne in action that he just plain forgot.

Another gold cloak fell with a sword through the belly before he could get out a warning. A fifth one managed to get his wits together and lunge at Cyberdyne with an ax raised high. Cyberdyne dodged the attack and separated the man's arm from his shoulder in one smooth motion. Then he killed two more who had begun to attack but suddenly had second thoughts when they saw their leader's smashed-in face. The ones still on horseback all reached the same decision at the same time and took off at a gallop as fast as possible back down the road. One of the remaining men was stupid enough to still think he could fight back, and Cyberdyne removed his head as a reward.

"Please!" The other three men all dropped their weapons and knelt down. Cyberdyne's arm stopped mid swing with the sword still hanging just a foot or so above one of the soldier's necks. "Please, don't kill us!"

Cyberdyne looked back to Jon for orders. He'd at least learned the lesson to not kill someone trying to surrender.

Yoren shook his head, still in disbelief at what he just saw. "That..." his eyes were fixed on the bodies on the road, not in horror but in wonder of how Cyberdyne could do that. "Barristan Selmy himself couldn't have done that!"

"Yoren," Jon said, trying to make him focus on the situation. "What should we do with them?"

Yoren came back to his senses. "Well, I suppose we've got room in the cage," he said. He stepped closer to the three captured soldiers. "Careful in there, though. Biter's not too friendly, eh?"