The Lost (30k Primarch Quest)

XXI. A "Fair" Fight

"… I will admit," The armiger – or rather its pilot – says as its singular green eye looks you over, "I ordered it, but I did not actually expect you to stop."

You shrug. "You would've caught me anyway. Figured I'd try my luck at challenging you."

The Armiger's singular large eye couldn't actually blink with surprise, but you see it adjusting momentarily. "… Challenging me?"

"We duel. You, me, and that little machine of yours. When I win, you let my comrades go."

The pilot laughs from within his machine with genuine mirth for a few moments before realizing you're serious.

"… Really?"

"Really."

"You." The knight said, his voice dripping with cold disbelief. "A cowardly brigand from the sea dare to lay claim to those under the protection of Lord Daisuki Kaiten, third of his name, servant of order, desolator of the foes of House Chan, pilot of the Mountain Ram?! By what deeds do you deem your demonstrably dimunitive delinquency worthy of the dance of death?!"

His alliteration needs some work. You frown and draw your blade, pointing it directly into the armiger's eye. "I am Ching Sun-Sin, son of the Reaver Queen, breaker of storms, he who has braved the Dajufeng and lived! And I challenge you, Lord Kaiten, for my worth is self-evident!!"

"Your lack of it certainly is, boy." The knight growls as his chainsword begins to rev, and he brings it up into what is as close to a salute as his machine can manage. "And when I crush you, your ship and your men will surrender themselves to my judgement. Impress me and perhaps you will be allowed to serve your betters as more than penal slaves."

You grin wide, saluting with your blade. "Fun."

"Swear it." The knight growled. "While your soldiers can still hear you."

"... we're not really soldiers, but alright." You laugh. "You hear me, crew? You don't cast off without me and if this chump can beat me, you'll all surrender to his authority, under my authority as captain. Got it?"

They wouldn't surrender, of course, but it serves you to get a message to all of their ears. After all, 'don't cast off' is a meaningless order if you're on land. And if by some miracle you lose, you won't have any authority as captain anyway.

Amaya nods, grabs Ping and drags him away from the incoming battle. Eun understands as well, and reaches out for Fan.

Fan grips you tighter, not understanding, because she's a child. "I don't wanna go."

"Fan," You say, voice even, "I'll be fine. It's just a giant robot."

"He is right, little girl." The knight interjects. "Besides, two on one is hardly a fair fight."

"YOU'RE IN A GIANT ROBOT!!" She yells.

"It is the smallest variant of this machine that exists. Besides, I intend that your father will be taken in alive."

"Besides," you whisper to her quietly, "I need you to make sure Eun gets back safe, okay?"

Fan stares at you a moment. "What about getting you back safe?"

You grin wide, as rain droplets begin to fall. You take off your hat and put it on the little blonde blank's head.

She stares at you.

"I'm gonna want that back." You say. "Keep it safe."

You can't tell if the rain's on her face or if she's crying, but either way she turns and runs to Eun. You see Eun grimace as she takes her, but she does take her. And the two run off towards the docks with the rest of the crew.

You both wait for the group to fade out of sight, and the rain begins to pour in earnest.

"Thanks for waiting." You say.

"You will honor our deal?"

"If you win I'll surrender." You say simply, knowing you cannot lose.

"Is she truly your daughter? I admit, I made the assumption."

"Not by blood, and I haven't known her long, but we rescued her from slavers and cultists." You say, drawing your blade. "Still not sure if that's the right term for our relationship – it's either father or older brother - but I was a little pressed for time and let it go. Do you truly intend to let me live?"

"Hrm. Not really something I can promise in this machine, even if I'd like to." The knight's photoreceptors focus on you. "Regardless I thought it best to say what would convince the child to leave."

"… Dishonesty is a tool like any other. I appreciate it." You glance up at the knight. "For that, I'll leave your robot mostly intact."

He snorts, and you see his melta warming up, evidently as confident as you are. "I don't kill children if I can avoid it."

"And for that, I'll let you live." You smirk, as the rain grows thicker and lightning cracks the sky.

Then you dash forward, and the battle begins.

-

Caihong watches as the crew very slowly piles back onto the ship, ill-gotten gains in tow. The alarm in the city doesn't have a clear origin, but no one is allowed to leave the harbor at the moment. That won't stop her, of course, but what will is her captain's absence. Sun-Sin could probably just swim out if need be, but that would keep the Dagger close to shore for too long.

Eun brings Fan onto the boat, then turns to Caihong, eyes wide and apprehensive. "Cai, he's fighting a knight!"

Caihong scowls and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Of course he is. Did he at least yell 'go on without me'?"

Eun shook her head. "Said that if he lost to surrender under his authority as captain and not to cast off without him."

… huh. Okay. Close enough. "Everyone, prepare to sail and hoist anchor on my mark. We'll have to do this quick so they don't catch us."

"We can't just leave him to fight that thing alone!" Eun yells.

"Stop panicking, your boyfriend is fine." Caihong snaps.

"He's not- forget it, we're not sailing without our captain!"

Fan looks between the two women, confused. "Wait, who's her boyfriend?"

Caihong ignores the child. "We're not. Just get ready. We'll have to leave quick as soon as he gets here."

"And if he doesn't?"

"You have your orders, Eun." Caihong growls, which is enough of an answer.

She bites her lip, nods, and takes Fan below decks. Thank the gods that was Eun's problem, not Caihong's.

"Seriously, who's your boyfriend? Is he nice?"

-

The torrential downpour is concealing you better than darkness ever could. You consider leaving the battle for a moment, but dismiss the idea out of hand. Even if you could afford giving him a chance to go after your crew, you said you'd duel him and you meant it.

That doesn't mean he has a chance.

You leap to the side as his chainsword comes down, carving gouges deep into the cobblestone streets. The pilot has the foresight to drag the blade along, throwing debris into the air towards you, stone pelting your exposed flesh.

Thunder rumbles in the sky, and you feel the storm's urge to strike.

Not yet, you think. It wouldn't be sporting.

In the same motion as your leap, you flip yourself around to land against a nearby wall, and before gravity can take you again you shove off, letting the wood crack loudly beneath your feet. The knight's arm comes up and your blade strikes against it, both of you lit up by the same flash of lightning.

You grab onto the armiger before you can slip off, the slick surface somehow easier to grab than anything dry. You pull up onto the knight and slam your arm down, and you hear gears shatter and metal snap beneath your elbow. The chainsword hangs limp, and its teeth stop moving. The pilot roars, twisting to throw you off. You use the momentum to leap back onto the street below.

You have just enough time to land and grin up at the machine before you see the rising glow of his meltagun. You roll through the wet streets easier than walking, and the sudden surge of light and heat misses you by an unfair margin.

The armiger is running for you and you let it come, raising your blade in anticipation. The knight fires again, but you're already moving towards the machine, the hiss of rain against the knight's gun like music to your ears.

The knight takes a step backward, trying to gain distance, and you let it, curious as to what it's going to do. It only moves, and with a sigh you catch up to it, the rain thick enough to hide-

Suddenly the knight switches gears and dashes forward, bringing its foot down right where you were about to be. You roll, splashing water into the air in the rain, before you realize he's brought his gun down to slam you to the side, searing your flesh and burning your clothes.

You're back on your feet in moments, just in time to jump again as the knight's melta fires and obliterates the wall you were standing in front of.

Okay. You've played enough. The knight's decent enough, but you have a crew to get back to.

You shoot into the air again. This time, however, you're going up, and you grab the machine's eye, ripping it off as your momentum carries you upward. You crash back down on top of the machine, and you hear the knight yell.

"Treachery!" He snarls from within his machine. "You brought cannons with you?! Degenerate scum, by my honor I-"

"No cannons, mate." You say, grinning wide at the top of the machine as it goes still.

The knight holds still for another moment or two, and you take the silence as assent to climb along the metal rungs that line the machine to its cockpit. With one hand, you open the hatch, ready to greet your beaten foe the gun barrel in your face.

The pilot fires, but his reaction simply isn't fast enough to match you. You grab the gun out of his hand and throw it to the side. You glare directly into the eyes of your opponent.

He's a younger man than you expected from his voice. Mid 30s, maybe early 40s. His oily hair is done up in some kind of odd bun, and his facial hair has been shaved down save for a long point that comes to the center of his chest.

"… Impressive beard. You got a wife?"

The man nods.

"Kids?"

He shakes his head without taking his eyes off you.

"Should fix that if you can." You say, before jumping down to the ground with the pilot in hand. You give the machine a good kick, breaking its ankle (is that the right term for a robot? Eh.) and making it topple over.

You let go of his collar. "Well the robot's not in great shape. But it is mostly intact, eh?"

The pilot says nothing, not daring to move.

"Anyway!" You clasp your hands together as you turn and walk away. "I'll be going with your gold now, knight. Nothing personal, this place was just a convenient target."

"… convenient?" The knight asks.

You shrug. "Yeah. M'crew needed money and this place seemed loaded."

"This wasn't even a move by the Empress, just some opportunistic piracy?!"

"Never even been to the same city."

He looks to his machine as it sparks, barely comprehending what he is looking at. His eyes linger on the remains of his chainsword. "… What are you?" The pilot rasps.

You grin as you turn away into the heavy rain. "The captain."

-

The Cutting Dagger pulls out of the harbor, sails quickly filling, and begins shooting off as fast as a ship can move.

"On cannons!" You shout, looking back at the ships in the harbor. The knight had promised not to come after you, but it seems the rest of the vessels made no such promise. You see people piling into the various ships, but they're quickly peeling away. One of the smaller ships unfurls its sails and sets off after you. You scowl, and lightning strikes the enemy boat as the wind swells your sails, pulling you away.

Fan laughs as she runs up to you and tackles you into a hug, sending a bolt of pain through your neck. "You made it!"

You grimace as you pat the hat on her head. You almost take it back, but it's keeping the rain off of her.

Virtuous Whim is standing at the stern, looking back at the port you ravaged. The armiger, once so tall and grand, now lays on its side. The lay sister stands next to him, eyes wide with horror. She starts to raise the orb in her hand, but Whim holds out his arm to stop her.

"It is in so much pain…" She murmurs, clearly trying to avoid the crew hearing her.

"It will only come after the ship if we fix it." He mutters, turning to glare at you as you come up to him. "Satisfied?"

You raise an eyebrow as Fan jumps off of your shoulder, and you feel the world come back into focus. "We got enough treasure to keep our pockets full for a bit."

Whim sighs, then gestures to the lay sister to come with him. She shakes her head. He raises an eyebrow himself, but nods and waits. She turns to you, and for the first time you see her without a smile.

"Inquiry."

… uh

"What?"

"Inquiry." She repeats. "What purpose did this serve?"

You shrug. "My crew had a hard time going into the storm. We lost half of our crew and nobody even got paid for it. Bohai was just a convenient target."

"Is that it?" Whim snarls from behind with a venom that catches you off-guard.

"What?"

"You have the strength to destroy an armiger knight in single combat, and you use that power to steal trinkets?" His disgust is palpable and catches you somewhat off-guard.

"Hey, gold isn't just trinkets!" You snap, trying to ignore that Amaya has pulled a jeweled necklace from her bag.

"It's such a pointless waste! You-"

The lay sister holds up a hand. "Virtuous Whim, I request cessation of auditory for the duration of my inquiry."

You raise an eyebrow at the lay sister. "You could just say 'shut up I'm talking'."

"Affirmative." The sister says. "Was this venture satisfactory?"

You shrug. "It'll do for now."

The lay sister hesitates a moment, as if she has something else to add, then nods to her fellow monk.

"… I had misjudged you, captain." Virtuous Whim says calmly as he turns and heads below decks.

"In what regard?" you ask.

"Your desires and will are depressingly small."

You frown, but you let it go. You know where your loyalties lie and it isn't to what this monk thinks you should be doing.

Speaking of…

-

Han looks up as you enter the room, his twin pistols resting on his legs. You're not sure that's a great sign for your lookout or for your shipwright. You glance to her and hide your whince. She's been getting worse, from the looks of it. Certainly seems paler. Scurvy? No, that would've been the first thing any of them tried to fix. The drowned zombies, probably, though you'd have expected her to turn into one by now.

"You two missed out on some good plunder." You say. "I took down an armiger."

Fan throws her hands up. "It was this big!" She frowns. "Wait, no, it…" She jumps. "Urgh. That times 20!"

Han sighs. "Is that really what we should be concerned with?"

You frown. "Geez man, I half expected that from the monk, but you?"

"Captain, doesn't this seem strange to you?" He gestures to Maia, whose deep tan has grown pale and sickly. "She's been sick before but she's always bounced back from it. This time, though… she hasn't been awake for more than a few minutes since we were attacked in the storm."

"So she's got it bad this time," you shrug.

"I dunno, boss, I just have a bad feeling about this."

"Look, I'm sure Maia will be fine. She'll probably be more upset to learn you locked yourself down here over her instead of staying above to keep an eye out."

Maia groans, and all three of you start.

"Where…" She mumbles, then drifts back under. "grdn…"

Fan starts to move towards her, but you hold her back. No telling what she has. Maia shifts a bit more, coughs heavily, and then slips back into unconsciousness.

"Captain-" Han begins before you cut him off.

"I'm not a miracle worker, Han." Says the guy who just got done saying he beat an armiger in single combat. "When we get to port I'll ask for a doctor that can take a proper look at her. It might help to give you something else to think about."

"And how soon'll that be?" He asks.

"It'll be the first thing I take care of next time we're in port."

-

The ship is yours again, captain. Where to next?

[] – Temple of Perpetual Devotion

The Tech Monks need to get off this ship, you need repairs, and they probably can help Maia out.

[] – Shang

It's a safe harbor, you need to report back to your mother, and there's probably doctors with the others.

[] – Write-In