...Amongst them was a child with wild curls and eyes as red as the ripest strawberries – an innocent harbinger of the great destruction to fall upon the world...
*****
Princess Talia crouched inside the ruins of a deserted hut, observing her target from the safety of her hiding spot. The cracked mud walls barely supported the weight of the collapsed thatched roof.
It was one amongst the many abandoned houses in this ghost town.
The Princess hoped that the residents of this hut had survived the onslaught of the Machines, choosing to ignore the tell-tale splotches of red that stained the floors and walls alike.
It was night time but sleep would not visit Talia.
Thornlands' second sun, Arcus, was at its highest point in the sky, imparting a faint reddish glow on the surface of the dead plains. Talia ducked her head to keep a stray sunbeam out of her deep, crystal-red eyes.
In the dimness, she could make out a faint shadow in the distance – her target was approaching.
*****
When she ran away from the village, Talia had started out with the intention of gathering information to help her people's war efforts.
What else could one girl do against these armoured monstrosities?
She spent her days tracking the Machines and noticed patterns in their movements.
She followed the tracks in the soil left by the creatures. They were unlike anything seen on the Thornlands.
The Machines moved on pseudopodia like snails but instead of muscles, their feet consisted of two rows of metallic plates that rotated around axles on either side of their bodies.
Talia also discovered that there were, in fact, two distinct types of Machines.
The quicker Aggressor type attacked, destroying all obstacles in their paths. Most Thornlanders only ever lived to see these.
The larger Gatherer types appeared on the scene after the areas were cleared by the Aggressors. These then reaped the resources from the conquered land.
Gatherers devoured wood, water and even raw ores buried deep within the soil, depleting the lands of all life while the smaller Aggressors stood guard.
Of course, it was dangerous to approach too close to the Machines.
Talia had observed them from safe distances with her ability to communicate with the Sap of Life, the essence of vitality that surrounded her planet.
She watched helplessly as town after town fell victim to the voracious appetites of these metallic abominations. Their hunger took mere hours to satiate. Once they were finished, the area would be almost completely drained of the Sap of Life.
Tali had also seen how futile it was to resist these fiends with simple human weapons. Swords and arrows barely scratched the surface of their toughened exoskeletons.
Even with the assistance of their fae allies, it was evident that the longer the wars raged, the more certain was the Machine victory.
Perhaps it was this looming threat that had urged the Thornlandian Princess to the warfront.
Dark Prophecy or otherwise, she was going to act!
*****
King Hesiod and Queen Celeana had been at the warfront since the Mechanical Wars began sixteen years ago.
They had spent the better part of their reign fighting the extraterrestrial invaders that threatened to wipe all life from their world.
The royal couple had not seen their daughter, Talia since her birth but they received regular updates on her. Lately, the war had become an all consuming effort.
When the latest update arrived from the Valley of the Briar Rose, the village where Talia was living, they were devastated.
"Run away?" Hesiod demanded, "Where could she have run to?"
The fae child that brought the grim news looked apologetic, "We do not know, Your Majesty. When Guardian Grace approached her bed chamber, it was empty. We looked all over the valley but she is yet to be found,"
The words of the prophecy ran through the minds of the panicked parents.
"How can this be?" Queen Celeana sobbed, "She is still fifteen!"
The messenger hesitated, "She turned sixteen two weeks ago."
*****
Talia concluded that the Gatherers would be the easier target.
Gatherers were always accompanied by the Aggressors while the Aggressors, themselves, often acted alone. Thus, she reasoned that the Gatherers must have weaker defences than their quicker counterparts.
However, she had to determine if her targets were armed.
She had been camping in this area for a couple of days. The Machines here had already neutralised the town and its surroundings. Most of its resources were long depleted, including the underground water levels.
They would leave in less than a day.
She had seen it before, as the Machines retreated after a successful conquest, a few stragglers would be left behind to pick their new territories clean.
There was a single Gatherer left among the stragglers.
She had to act soon.
Talia knew that each Gatherer was capable of devouring an entire town.
In her innocent worldview, she concluded that these Gatherers were responsible for bringing food to their hives. Why else would they be consuming such large amounts of resources while the Aggressors did not eat at all?
If she could slay these beasts, surely, in time, the Machine hive would weaken.
The timing was ripe. The Machines had lowered their guards and were moving alone through the deserted, war-ravaged plains.
As she watched, her target entered the empty streets for one last scan.
Talia struck.
The Princess took a handful of flax seeds from the pouch at her side. She threw them on the expected path of the Machine. Then, using her ability, she implored the Sap of Life to gush through them. The fae called her ability 'Harmony', the humans called it 'Magic'.
The drained surroundings were unresponsive at first but after moments of straining, the seeds burst to life.
As the monster passed, unaware of the germinating seedlings, they sprung to life in a spurt of furious growth and twisted around the axles on one side.
The Machine struggled, rotating the chain tracks faster but Talia persisted and so did the vines. Each time the Machine was about to cut free, new vines replaced the worn out ones.
After what seemed like an eternity, the Gatherer finally gave up on forcing its way out.
Talia waited. The Aggressors had cutting lights that could burn down the vines and its surroundings at one go but the Gatherer did nothing of the sort.
She did not know how the brute would retaliate but she stayed hidden.
Finally, a blue light, the familiar scanning light, erupted across the body of the creature as it tried to see what had caught on its wheel. After the scan, followed a moment of indecisive silence during which the creature did not stir.
Then, to the shock of the hidden Princess, the broad head of the Machine propped open, lifting skywards - she had never seen them do that.
Lo and behold, a small, bipedal creature wrapped in a white suit emerged from the armoured belly of the beast. Its face was hidden behind a panel of black glass.
Questions flooded Talia's mind.
Was that a symbiotic being that resided within the Machine? Were these tiny creatures living inside the other Machines too? Did they somehow tame these mechanical fiends?
The biped approached the treads. It drew a sharp blade from its suit and tried to cut the stems off the axles.
Talia, not to be outdone, used Harmony again, this time tying the hand of the smaller creature down to the axel.
The Machine-tamer took the knife in its other hand and tried to cut itself free but the plants kept growing tighter. Soon the tamer was entangled.
Talia's heart was racing. What should she do next?
During the struggle, the Machine had remained unmoving. Perhaps it was not dexterous enough to assist the tamer. Perhaps it could not move without the tamer.
As she emboldened herself to prepare for an attack, the suited creature tilted its head and spoke into a tiny black box on its shoulder, "E099-Rury, come in! I'm caught in a native trap. Please assist."
Its voice reverberated through the Sap of Life connecting the Princess to her flaxen trap. Talia was surprised to hear the words.
She could understand this creature. Its language sounded like a mangled form of Thornlandian, slurred with a heavy accent.
"E098-Peri, come in. Message received," a serious voice replied through the box, "Location?"
"In the town, Lane four,"
"Right, coming," Rury grumbled over the communicator, "Damn natives and their bogus traps! I bet the insect that set it is dead and now we have to deal with it!"
Talia half-understood the conversation and was furious at the callous words.
"Alright, locked on your location, stay put," Rury confirmed.
"Better hurry before I leave," the other's voice dripped sarcasm.
After a few minutes, an Aggressor entered the street. Would this creature use the cutting light?
Once the Machine stopped, its head, too, propped open and an identically dressed tamer emerged.
Rury had a tool in its hand, "Hold still, I'll burn it off,"
It adjusted the tool and a flame gushed out from one end.
"Careful with that,"
Talia panicked. The plants would not be able to withstand fire. She had to neutralise the weapon fast.
An idea occurred to her.
As soon as Rury was near enough, the plants burst out with renewed vigour but this time, they entwined together into thick ropes and attacked both targets at once.
The vines snaked up their bodies, wrapping tight around the faces and arms of the tamers before either of them had time to react. The bipeds flailed their arms, clutching at the air.
The vines pierced through the suits and broke into the glass visors protecting their faces.
After some time, they stopped moving. The plant growth slowed and finally stopped. Blue flowers blossomed on their still bodies.
Talia approached the unmoving enemy. Somehow, she felt confident that the Machines would not attack her without their tamers.
She peeked through the shattered helmets into the lifeless faces. Though they had shorter hair and greyish skin, the creatures looked human.