The Knights of New Humano are nothing like the Knights of Old Terra; they were not born to exist in machine bodies that towered ten stories and were bristled with technology that made them the ultimate weapon. Such indulgence in technology and the belief that a human mind and AI construct could exist in the same form for a purpose with commonality had long since been abandoned. In this new world, the Knights still stood, but not as they once did. Nevertheless, the recent generation had done as the generation before them, committed themselves to be the most elite fighting force in possession of the New Humano government despite its isolation.
And none were more efficient, capable, and skilled in their purpose than Fourth Knight Jeremiah "Spear" Holland. His rank did not match his youthful and natural boyish face, with blonde hair swept aside only by the wind and swift movements of his own. His armor glistened wherever he went; even in the darkness, he was a beacon, unlike his brothers and sisters. This was on purpose and the right of his position to make himself stand out from the others and their matte black armor, which turned them into deadly shadows, with only their faces providing a splash of color and identity against the backdrop of their slated armor, magnetized to their flesh nanite suits worn underneath.
He stood slightly taller than his allies at eight feet compared to their seven feet size as they moved through white rocks from a beach. Their transport craft remained behind and guarded by some droids deployed with them. As standard, he brought his best friends Knight Leonard "Defiant" Martin and Jessica "Raven" Appleton on this mission. They had grown up together training for their service in the Knights at the Knights headquarters far to the north of any New Humano city at the Castle.
Their training included surviving in the sheer vastness of cold nature and facing off strange and deadly animals with nothing but edged-shaped rocks, and marching countless miles together. They had seen each other through their studies in every combat technique of the old world and new and also battled each other to near death with these techniques. Ensured each other could shoot a target without even aiming down the sights using light rounds from a minimum of five hundred yards! But most important of all, they had ensured each other had survived the augmentations and mutations that came along with the final trials of becoming a Knight, operations which killed, on average three-fourths of the trainees. The threat they prepared for was out there in the rest of this world, somewhere, and while they knew of native interactions with those beings, they had managed to keep their location a secret. But should it ever come to light, then the Knights were the sharp end of the spear in defense of New Humano, each Knight able to kill at least ten thousand on oath before even thinking about death.
But neither Jeremiah, Defiant, nor Raven believed threats were waiting for them on this island. The Baron Isles were named such not only because they had no inhabitants, but even the Ven Rer referred to them with such a name. Once long ago, the islands could offer comfortable living, but then as the world shifted and changed, many of the islands sank, and only the tips of the mountains that once dominated the island chain remained. These tips were barren rock; barely even shrubs could grow upon them. Even the Followers, in their heartless allowance of the destruction of old Terra, could not find a way to survive here no matter how many bodies and religious zealotry they could throw at the rocks. And they had no reports of encounters with them but a Knight to prepare themselves for what could likely be their last fight.
They were sent out here to look for something that came scorching down from the sky just a week ago, a meteor of some sort that split into many nearly untraceable pieces. However, this one rock was emitting a strange signal during its entire descent down—a signal that piqued some interest in the Council, but not all.
"So where do you think it came from? The astronomers are still trying to chart the system's stars, comets, and asteroid fields." Raven says, breaking the strange silence between them as they head for the flat-topped surface of the island.
Defiant grunts with disapproval, her joy, and curiosity about matters beyond their service had always been something that annoyed him. Knights were soldiers through and through and the last defenders of humanity after all. And she was always talking about the stars, the histories, and all manner of things a soldier should let those who knew peace time discuss.
"A Knight believes in accepting the charts and designs of those they protect...."
Defiant clips back with annoying protest, "Yes, I know Leonard; a Knight also pledges to stand watch even in their sleep on the battlefield. But if I recall correctly, you have fallen to sleep several times on watch duty in the Caldon mountains."
Jeremiah can only offer a chuckle as his two friends go at it. They do this all the time, and while Defiant won't admit it, he knows that Leonard believes her much better than him despite outranking her. He always wanted the three of them to have the utmost potential gained from their ambition, and the Knights were a military force, so Jessica's wide-eye view had no real place in the steps needed for promotion. And therefore, Leonard saw it as nothing but a childish hindrance to her reaching her true potential and serving New Humano best. She was oblivious to Defiant's feelings, however, likely placing his stuffiness and uptight nature as simple Leonard being pompous. One of the reasons she teased him was by refusing to refer to him by his Knight name.
"I didn't fall asleep. I was merely resting my eyes after having to watch your sectors while you two spent half the patrol discussing what to eat when it was finished."
Jeremiah raises his fist as they approach the rounded edge of the path, with still a tiny climb to go and no noises detected so far; the others are confused. That is until he stepped slightly to the side, allowing them to see fresh prints in the small track of sand and dirt, left recently by something which had touched the ocean recently considering it had not rained, but the track prints sand was dark with moisture.
"Steel yourselves, full suit, and only shoot when fired upon." He orders sternly despite having just been enjoying the conversation moments before with a bit of laughter.
All three Knights press their neck plate in, causing their helmets to rise from under the collar of their armor. Surrounding the head in four durable layers of titanium with a flexible diamond interior plate, the suit's visor offers just enough visual openings without risking any shatter of the steel and nickel-weaved glassed impeding or harming the Knights. Defiant rotates his Light Rifle from his back, kept hidden until that point by his Knight cape, and clicks the sword-shaped rifle on. As it hums to life with a slight glow facing back towards his main forearm, confirming it is ready, Raven's Titanium carbon alloy blades slip out from her suit's forearms, and she takes hold of their edges with her gauntlets. The blades were sharp enough to slice even diamonds with enough force, thanks to the blade edge being laced with diamond and gold chips.
Jeremiah pulls his sword from its sheath strapped to his back; the long blade was made from the remnants of the sword belonging to the Knight of Old Terra known as Shield. It was the weapon given to the Fourth Knight upon achieving the rank and was made of old nanotechnology and reportedly forged in a nuclear reactor that had gone into meltdown. The nanites within the sword continuously cleaned and hardened it, following a stream of lines through it and giving it its iconic glowing blue veins against the blackness of its metal. Each Fourth Knight named the blade upon receiving it, and Jeremiah had chosen to call it, Humanity's Hand. And he had seen combat against foes of major threat in it, though not as himself. As stated, the first time picking up the sword resulted in the mind molding with it and seeing the memories of combat that was enacted involving the sword—turning an already lethal war weapon and its user into one and spreading the experience of that combat and the lessons learned to another generation.
The three take hold of the cliffside and begin climbing directly upright, their boots possessing side spikes that made such climbs possible without using their hands. So a Knight could always have their focus on the enemy ahead of them and feet solidly grounded and never need the use of climbing equipment. They move slowly, however, hoping that the digging spikes do not make too much noise and alert their possible enemy before they arrive.
The sight of the droid commanders back in their station somewhere in New Humano was probably something they were in awe of. Knights rarely ever did joint operations and were almost mythical due to their lack of appearance in everyday society, with Jeremiah's vanilla white and gold-lined cape likely being the first thing to draw their attention to the edge of the cliff as they ascended. Leaving them stunned by his gallantry and almost regal-like appearance of him, while the black capes of his comrades reminded them that the Knights were death walking to any threat to them.
The trio reaches the top and, without hesitation, crest the edge. They were returning to a normal upright position, and standing shoulders edge to each other. Weapons ready and raised to face the enemy. But the surrounding area was empty of movement or any sign of life, their helmets not detecting a fligget. A tiny fly native to the planet with a buzz to its wings could become a nuisance even at fifty yards away.
But their eyes come to rest on the impact crater at the center of the island's top, oddly still glowing from impact, but no smoke emerged from the embers thrown around on the surface rocks nearby that still burned.
"Raven, where is the smoke from the embers? Is that how meteors are supposed to work?" Defiant requests nervously.
Before letting her answer, Jeremiah signals for them to spread ten yards between them and begin to approach.
"Oh, now you want to know about astronomy?" Jeremiah quips.
"Guess we should tell him about the pizza we intended to have when we get back too," She tries to joke with an uneasy tone, "To answer your questions though, Defiant, no, that isn't how impact and after impact is supposed to work."
They cover half the fifty-yard distance to the edge of the crater, and Jeremiah decides to calm their nerves, considering the increased breathing he can hear coming from both Defiant and Raven. Pausing, he briefly switches his comm channel to open so that he could update the Castle on their mission status, even though they were no doubt watching the stream of it.
*Command, 1st Squad approaching crater sight. Note strange lack of smoke despite heat still present within crater sight. Units taking appropriate caution*
*Confirm that Spear*
The immediate response allows both Raven and Defiant to clear their throats and control their breathing. Jeremiah, however, is stopped for a second as something fuzzes pops into his comm channel, flooding his earpiece with white noise. He dismisses it initially as some simple interference from the channel returning to the Unit but then...
*You...yo...child of shie...ld.*
The words are faint and almost have a robotic-like rollout despite their breaking; it was a mixture of pain within it. Something alive.
"Check your frequencies." He orders.
Causing the others to pause and glance over at each other in confusion.
"Sir?" Defiant says.
"Check excess convo." He replies sternly, wanting to believe so much that the voice was one of them.
*Child of shield. Come, I must finish what was started. Born the journey, it must live*
"Spear. We didn't talk." Raven states, the nervousness rising between the three of them.
A sudden rise of flames and movement from inside the crater halts all three of them in their tracks with just another ten yards to go! Jeremiah, with the intrusion to his comms and the uneasiness of the situation, immediately concludes to pull back.
"Back now! To the edge!" He shouts.
His words don't need to sit within the other two for a second on judgment; following the order, they turn and spring within three seconds back to the edge. Jeremiah remains in position just in case something does emerge, and he needs to offer cover.
"Clear!" Defiant declares.
But Jeremiah does not move, frozen in place with Humanity's Spear tip firmly out towards the crater as if he knew something was coming.
"Spear!" Raven shouts.
"Jeremiah, get back to the edge now!"
*Fourth Knight, are you operational* Someone from the castle cuts in.
Jeremiah remains still. Not even showing a sign of being alive, his stiffness extends to his breath as his chest plate doesn't even slightly rise and lower to signal he is. Within his suit, he is alive, but he senses something from within the crater. The voice was gone, but it almost seemed to stream its presence to him, and its origin point was coming from within the crater; he tried to move. Movement of any kind was almost impossible, thanks to this feeling. He felt his will fighting with something else, something internal to him! And not even his lips would part so he could call for help!
Internally the panic subsided for himself; the panic for his friends and the citizens of New Humano, however, was not subsided. He was meant to be the front of humanity's potential in his rank, his body the epitome of peak, and his mind solid in its duty. Yet here he was, brought to a standstill out of nowhere by something unknown and likely coming forth within seconds as the glow and movement within the crater glows! Leonard and Jessica stood no chance! And the average citizen or scientist back home would be rolled over! In that realization, a ghastly thought in any other situation to anyone else that had not taken the oath and meant it slips into his mind. It was him...or his friends and everything he promised to protect.
And he chose him.
*You are one of his children, then. Maius bonum*
The voice says again, clearing into that of a woman. Though a robotic tone still follows underneath each word. Suddenly he is released. Breath surged to him once again. His muscles respond, and he takes two steps back, keeping his weapon raised. But then he feels it, the ground rumbling. He doesn't hesitate; Humanity's Spear is pulled back to swing forward with his charge as his first steps snap the ground below him. His roar rips out from his helmet as he steps to the edge, swinging his sword through flame as something metal rises from the crater! The blade cuts right through it as the strange object is joined by dozens more...droids. Old relics, even older than the barely upgraded versions of New Humano droids. But using the same tactic of numbers used long ago, they swarm, with three following droids after the one Jeremiah had sliced, rising up and knocking him backward several dozen feet!
He crashes down to the ground, sliding within a few feet of Raven and Defiant. Leonard immediately begins laying down fire as Raven rushes to help Jeremiah to his feet. He is quick to it, and they immediately start swinging and firing their weapons as the droids begin to swarm around them. It becomes apparent quickly that he is not their target as they swipe and release old metal rounds at them, creating a chorus of dings and knicks that make the shouts of action almost inaudible to those listening from the castle.
The swarm around them grows so thick that the light of the crater is blotted out, and the view for those operating the droids is even more ominous from the beach. As the cliff edge seems to grow and extend with the ever-increasing horde of droids, their thrusters in their boots and back create a flood of black smoke and fire ever-growing!
"Engage! Engage! Get them out!" Jeremiah shouts to the drone operators.
The order prompts the operators to raise their weapons, and light rifles and machine guns roar to life. The nine droids do not have to aim much to land any shots, but the first landed shot that disables one of the attackers also alerts them to the droids and craft on the beach. A separate line of these droids slips out from the edge of the island's top, roaring towards them. The first few are easy to take down, but the operators are not elite soldiers, and their droids interface bodies are incapable of fighting as a Knight does.
They are ripped through and have their parts and panels torn to shreds in a few short passes, with the attacking droids practically sacrificing themselves by accelerating and slamming into the droids. Two retreat to the ship as more shouts come from the Knights, immersed in the thick of their fighting. The droid operators panic and shout, too, as the transport crafts crew are human! And they knew if the craft did not leave, they would be slaughtered! The droids follow them in, and the crew chief and two remaining operators form a wall of fire.
Back in the center of the swarm, the adjustment of splitting the attack provides an opening for the Knights in what felt like a hopeless cause for a moment. Seeing it, Jeremiah wasted no chance, grabbing a pulse grenade from under his abdominal plating and holding down the ignition pin. The glow of the three-timer rings disappearing catches Raven's eye as she dispatches three droids with one continuous swing.
"What are you doing? LET IT FLY!" She orders.
Distracted, two droids grab hold of her shoulders, and the force of their impact causes her to slide back to the very edge of the cliff—another opportunity to do what is necessary.
"Defiant! To Raven!" Jeremiah orders.
As he was trained to and knowing that not following an order from Jeremiah could get them all killed, he cracks open the head of a droid flying at him and releases a burst of light rounds from his rifle. Each shot is seemingly guided with ease as he turns to rush to her, either disabling a droid's back thrusters or completely taking one out through a shot to the head. He lands another three rounds into the closest droid on Raven while she frees herself of the other by her weapons, stabbing, and slicing.
With the two of them distracted and at the edge, Jeremiah releases the ignition button, resulting in the pules grenade sending forth its two waves of sheer force! Their distance allows the two Knights to go off the edge while clearing the gathering of the remaining droids for a moment. At the wave's epicenter, Jeremiah takes a considerable punch as he is flung back to the crater's edge. For a moment, he feels pain surging from the arm that was holding the grenade moments before, but as he slides across the ground, he feels a surge of relief from the pain as his armor and augments work together to ensure he can keep going.
Gathering himself as his ears ring back to existence, he hears it.
*Maius bonum*
He jumps to his feet, gripping himself to the ground and lifting his arm with Humanity's Spear. Pointing it initially into the crater as he takes in his surroundings and regains his bearings, then turning it swiftly to the droids regrouping and preparing to continue the fight. He briefly looks down at his other arm, his hand mangled and bits of his armor dislodged by the wave having turned against him as they splinter his forearm open.
Raven's piercing shouts cut through his zoning and enter his ears, "What are you doing, Jeremiah? Get out from up there!"
Defiant grunts and thrusts with his voice, fist, and weapon as he clears the craft and saves what remains of its crew from the droids as they adjust and reengage down on the beach.
"We have to get out of here right now; Spear, get your boots beachside. I know you outrank, but that isn't a soldier to the ranking officer; that's friend-to-friend Jeremiah."
*Sharpen up Knights. You are still in a combat zone. Spear, your blood loss is not slowing. The condition will result in death unless emergency cauterization. Return to the beach*
Jeremiah had no intent to return to that beach. The calling of the voice and the droids' emergence was the result of something more, and that something wanted him. Now flung from view, they did not have to see his final moments should they be with pain. Lightheadedness was confirmation in words from comms, he was dying anyways, and any medical assistance in the field was unlikely to save him. But he could save them...the voice would let him save them. All he had to do was walk forward. His right foot burned with his first step, but it immediately produced the results he was looking for.
All of them stopped moving, frozen in place almost as if encased in a shell of their form; the droids' assault was paused. He pauses and looks back, hearing the cessation of hostility on the beach and smiling through his pain, confirmation of his intended sacrifice. If they went back with nothing, they would face the consequences. So he was going to leave them with something; it could not be his sword. He was going into an unknown, and unless this crater and the voice coming from him immediately killed him, the Knight would need his weapon. A strong and committed Knight could call their hand a weapon, but one must never be caught dead without their weapon. War was their purpose; one cannot make war without a chosen weapon.
He lifts his helmet and drops it, the weight of the helmet causing a significant dent in the ground and shattering it into dust and pieces before bringing the helm to rest. Evidence of his last moment of defiance and facing his death to ensure not even a charge may come upon the two of them. This decision was his own...from his lips came the words that had drawn him to this point, "Maius bonum."
Able to still hear him due to the neck implant that each Knight was given, which transferred their vocal chord production to those on their channels, Raven and Defiant were utterly at a loss. The language he was speaking was lost to humanity...or maybe even new.
"Is he speaking, Rerian?" Raven asks, the two rushing up back up the path, their suits thrusters practically flying them up.
"I don't know. I think he dinged his brain with that damn stunt he pulled."
Once again, they reach the bottom of the cliffside, but the droids won't allow them any further, their buzz adjusting from stillness to a flurry. They rush them both just as they deploy their backplate thrusters to reach Jeremiah more quickly; taking hold of them and pulling down. They pile onto the two Knights.
"What is happening?"
"I don't think they are trying to kill us! They're holding us back."
"Back from what, Leonard?"
"Back from him! Jeremiah! Don't do it! We can't make it to you! Come to us!"
The shout would have cut through Jeremiah's soul had it reached him in time. The droids collapse and release them. Built up force and held back momentum, shooting the two Knights upwards. They land on the top, several feet in thanks to the height reached, and once again stand at the ready with weapons drawn. Before they can focus or acclimate to look for him, the droids that remained whip around and bunch up, those which were damaged or destroyed are picked up and flung by their replicants into the crater. A wall of metal collects and drops into it before the last droid stops and looks back at the helmet at the crater's edge, then simply shutdowns. Gravity causes it to crash down within, but there is no sound accompanying it to confirm its impact on the crater.
Leonard and Jessica look at each other in complete fear, the sight of the helmet removed from a Knight in combat was already a deafening sight of grief. But it couldn't be grief for Jeremiah; he was the best of them. The strongest in generations, the most unstoppable fighting force there was, Humanity's Spear, was known well by those in the rest of New Humano society. Even if his exploits were not against the intended foe, they were against beasts and abominations of different manner and had made him a hero, even if they were right beside him in each deed. Even they knew that when Jeremiah the Spear Holland was in the field, even the forces of nature seemed to bend to his will.
They rush forward through the indent within the earth left by him sliding from the pulse grenade's impact, a line of his bright red blood with bits of glowing blue light, creating a trail right next to the indention. At his stopping point, Jessica's attention was pulled into the helmet, while Leonard was pulled into the steps to the crater's edge. Raising his rifle, he steps slowly towards the crater, the fire that had erupted upon their initial approach dampening with each step. As it returned to dim glows of embers, he reached the edge and from the crater's rim to its bottom...nothing. But Earth unaffected. No body, no blood, no piece of armor, no weapon, no sign of life for the brother that was theirs all this time.
His only trace, the helmet he left behind, is in Jessica's hand as a drop of his blood drops to her feet. Whatever had happened, their eyes said to each other...he was gone.
*Defiant...Raven...report. Where is Spear*
The same realization was there in the voice of headquarters. The two Knights could only return silence, for that was what now greeted them with their enemy gone, their commander and the ideal Knight has gone; their friend is gone.