"Nanomagi are without a doubt the scariest and mysterious new creations of our technological age. It was originally an 'order' created by one of the world's religions that quickly splintered off and annexed itself off from any outside influences. They systematically erased the history of their group's creation and then proceeded to create a thick aura of mystery surrounding their origins. What little information we have on their abilities comes from autopsies performed on ex-members. We infuse each nanomagi with a nanite swarm upon their initiation, and then they define their role further through study and adaption of their bodies through upgrades. We have classified some of their order as pyrotechnics (fire manipulation), necrotechs (Dead biomatter manipulation), holotechs (light manipulation and illusion creation), and Infratech (Hacking and software manipulation."

፨

Hale clapped his hand on Dane's back. "Beautiful, isn't it?"

Dane's mouth was all but on the floor in amazement as his eyes slowly took in the thing before the two of them. "In all my wildest dreams..."

Before they were a bipedal robotic exoskeleton: an ACE, the outer armor was all hard edges, sharp angles, and had a blue silver sheen to the entire body. It appeared hunched over, with one of its humanoid legs resting knee down on the ground and one hand with its knuckles alongside it. The forearm was a square front with a hard, sharp elbow that stuck out dynamically with small square sliding slats. The shoulder was a square rounded edge with larger similar square sliding slats. There were intense, angled thrusters coming out the back of the body. The cockpit was in the head with a robust humanoid jawline and a triangular point to the head. The eye was a long red line. A holster is built into the right side of the thigh for a simple rectangular handle that is built into the streamline of the body for a sheathed sonic resonator sword.

Along the right arm, a set of rungs were arranged up the side of the arm and up to the cockpit entry hatch.

There was a sound of many tromping feet running along the ferracrete roadway.

Dane quickly motioned up the ACE's side for Hale to climb. "Go, go. I'll take care of them. How long do you need?"

Hale jumped onto the rungs and was halfway up when he looked down, pushing his glasses up onto his face. "Five minutes, give or take a two depending on the security protocols I have to bypass."

"Sir, are you sure your brother is qualified to pilot an ACE? Only applicants with perfect vision can enter the cockpit."

Dane smirked. "Yeah, he uh... wears them as a fashion statement. Thinks they make him look cool. Dennis, can you facilitate that process?"

"Yes sir, I can."

Dane nodded to Hale. “Keep going. Dennis will handle any form of security that you'll encounter. Dennis is my nanite buddy in my head."

"Sir, I do not mean to intrude, but if you give your brother administrative rights, I can tap into the com feed of the ACE, and we can communicate without your directive. I assume this is fine?"

Dane nodded. "Do it."

When Hale was next to the head unit, he tapped a button on the side, and the head swung up, revealing a cockpit inside. Hale grabbed hold of a top bar and swung himself inside. His fingers flew over the holoboard, and the insides of the cockpit sprang to life. "Dennis, can you hear me?" Hale asked.

"Yes sir, I will begin bypassing the built-in security protocols, while you take the ACE through its warm-up routine."

Meanwhile, on the ground, Dane turned to form the ACE and watched as a group of ten armed UEDF soldiers, led by a man dressed in a black-swathed cloak, came toward the two of them.

Dane bared his teeth as he watched the newcomers arrive and then form a semi-circle, with his back to the ACE's leg, under the curved arch of the exoskeleton.

The cloaked leader threw off his hood and revealed a gaunt, jaundiced, green-tinted face with sunken black eye sockets.

"Ah crap, I was afraid of this."

A voice familiar but unexpected popped into Dane's head. "What is it, bro?"

Dane scanned the faces surrounding him. "Necrotech Nanomagi. I knew Dobson wouldn't send Nolan without one of those bastards."

The necrotech bowed his head and slowly backed his way behind the wall of soldiers. After there was at least one body in front of him, he pointed at Dane with his jaundiced fingers.

"Sir, we are currently operating at 5% maximum capacity. We expelled most of the energy you absorbed in your fight with the Deathheads. I have just enough power to fuel basic suit functions, including strength enhancement, nanite bodily repair, and my AI suite."

Dane nodded. "We'll have to do this the old-fashioned way then."

The soldiers raised their kiptek assault rifles and closed in on Dane. Each opened fire, peppering the area where he had been standing mere moments before.

Coiling his legs under him, Dane mustered his strength and sprung into the air, his right leg trailing behind the other. He flipped over the group of soldiers and landed directly next to the necrotech. His face was a mere inch away from the others. "You last," he promised, then ducked down and swept the necrotech's legs from under him with a foot sweep.

Then Dane bounced back up and dived into the group of soldiers that were trying to turn in time to do something.

They were about to open fire when they saw the necrotech just behind Dane and were forced to hold their trigger fingers. Dane dived into the group of soldiers and grabbed the muzzles of the two men next to him, pointing them at each other.

By instinct, the two men fired and hit each other instead of Dane. He grabbed one of the falling men's sidearms and quickly popped the soldier next to him in the head.

Another jumped on Dane's back to try and undermine him, but he went with the flow, flipping the soldier over his back and onto the ground. Then, in one sharp movement, he snapped the man's neck.

Dane dived over the man's broken neck and went into a roll, just under the muzzle that was spitting blue fire in front of him. The dead soldier was riddled with bullets.

Dane grabbed the man's sidearm and pulled the trigger while it was still in the holster, shooting the soldier in the foot. Then, while he was preoccupied and dropping his guard, Dane palm-slammed him in the nose, sending his nose bone into his brain.

Dane grasped the soldier by the body, hauled him up, and threw him at another man not far away.

Suddenly, he was thrown forward by bullets riddling his back. He gasped in pain as he felt most of the impact absorbed by his tough skin. Nonetheless, it still hurt.

Using the incoming damage, he threw the energy around his body and into the ground, driving his fingers into the ferracrete with the force of the push. Then he pulled back and brought a chunk with his hand.

Another blanket of fire hit Dane in the back, and he turned about, pointing his hand at the five soldiers that had taken up a firing line behind him.

Dane agitated the rock by throwing the kinetic energy from the bullet impacts into the rock itself. Then he hauled back and threw the rock at the soldiers. Halfway there, the rock exploded into a hail of dust that splintered into long sharp shards that slammed into the soldiers, taking their lives or severely maiming them

As the soldiers fell to the ground. Dane slowly stilled his breath and looked toward the necrotech. The black-cloaked figure had already risen to his feet, and he walked slowly and purposefully over to one of the downed men that were still alive from the improvised rock grenade. He kneeled, and almost lovingly stroked the man's cheek. "There there," he whispered into his ear. "It will be all right now."

The soldier whimpered as he looked into the necrotech's pale eyes. "Please, I don't want to."

The necrotech continued to stroke his head, and then a small black liquid rolled out of his long black sleeve and into the man's nose. It was absorbed almost immediately, and then the man began to seize. He flopped about on the ground, and his eyes rolled back into his head, while foam bubbled from his mouth.

More of the black liquid continued to drip from the necrotech's sleeve as it made its way unerringly toward the other bodies. Those bodies that were already deadly stiffened slightly, then became still, while the last two that were alive acted the same as the first man.

When the necrotech stood, he crossed his arms and nodded to Dane, as if to begin the next round of the fight.

From all around, the ten corpses slowly rose to their feet. Their arms were hanging limply toward the ground, and their heads were bowed. They stood eerily still, swaying only with the slight wind that sifted through the airfield.

A soft hum of the ACE coming to life caused Dane to turn his head slightly. Long blue lines of light flashed up and down the cracks between the rectangular ablative plates of the mech's armor.

Without moving his eyes from the necrotech, he spat on the ground as he sized up his opponents. "Goddamn it! I hate necrotechs and their undead puppets! Are you almost ready, bro?"

Hale's voice crackled in his ear. "Yeah man, almost. Give me a minute or two more!"

The necrotech's lips perked up into a cruel smile, and pointed canines poked out over the bottom lip with slowly unveiled malice. Suddenly, he flicked his wrist up and moved his index finger. The lead undead puppet's head snapped up toward Dane, and from within the darkened husks of its eyes, a toxic green light shone from within. Its head slowly turned about at an odd angle. The vertebrae in its neck snapped and popped out and back into place repeatedly. Then, with a quick movement, the puppet dashed toward him.

Dane reacted instantly. Going to the side, he avoided a heavy-handed clubbing attack toward his head, but even with his speed, the puppet was more than superhuman, and he could only match it with the strength enhancements he gained.

The puppet's fist clocked Dane across the jaw and sent him spinning toward the ground. He kept his momentum going and then righted himself.

The puppet was suddenly eerily still again after the clubbing attack. Dane slowly rubbed the blood from the side of his mouth. "Dennis, what is happening? Why aren't they attacking?"

"It appears they are waiting for you, sir."

"Waiting?"

"My analysis of their movements indicates they are conserving energy. Each necrotech puppet likely has a limited lifespan, due to the nature of its conception. The nanites release nerve impulses that keep the body active for a short time after death, but without the support of most of the living nervous system, the nanites will not work for long."

"How long?"

"A minute, two, three. I cannot know without a thorough analysis of the nanites adaptive mechanisms since their schematics are not on any known database, military or otherwise. All I can say for sure is that they need to conserve energy and the less they move, the longer they last."

"Goddamn Nanomagi and their godforsaken mystery." He breathed in deep and prepared himself

- End of Episode 12 -

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