This is my ongoing scifi / fantasy / crime fiction serial. New chapter every week.
The Triverse is
Mid-Earth, an alternate 1980s London
Max-Earth, a vision of the 26th century
Palinor, where magic is real
Previously: A rogue AI megaship known as ‘Probably Better’ has transited through the portal to Palinor and has launched an attack using drone robots. The Six Blades, a local monster hunting crew, are on the scene…
Bruglia. Palinor.
3208. Brightsun.
It was a rare occasion when Ellenbrin had no data on a target. She was an encyclopedia of every hostile flora and fauna on Palinor, complete with knowledge of where to find them, what they ate, how they hunted and attacked - and how to take them down. Backed up by the Six Blades, she’d happily go up against anything the planet had to offer.
The thing hovering above Bruglia was not of Palinor. The creatures it had spewed out were not of Palinor. She knew of megaships, of course, had seen pictures, and recognised the thing in the sky as such, but had never theorised that they would ever need to fight one. Its capabilities and limits were unknown, as were those of the bipedal robot it had ejected. There were human-sized hosts on Max-Earth and they were known to travel to Mid-Earth, but as far as she knew had never been seen on Palinor. So many unknowns meant danger.
Still, she was a quick learner.
She watched from an adjacent rooftop as Ngarkh seized the robot and dragged it from the tower, aided by a concussive blast from Erik. Even with the weight of the koth and Erik’s magic, the robot was able to resist for a moment, then it crashed down to the ground, Ngarkh on top and trying to pin it.
The robot writhed, evidently a match for koth strength and considerably faster. They scrabbled, limbs grabbing for a hold, then the robot managed to get its legs beneath Ngarkh and sent them flying across the street. Extending their wings, Ngarkh easily controlled their backwards momentum, slowing to a gentle glide and avoiding hitting a wall, before lowering gracefully to the ground.
Emerging from a doorway, Halbad swung his axe into the side of the robot’s head. It was jolted to the side, but the axe bounced off, spinning away, and knocking Halbad off-balance. He was left open on one side as the robot advanced. Ellenbrin fired a hooked and roped arrow she would normally use for grappling, her aim perfectly wrapping around the robot’s waist. She looped her end of the rope around a chimney and jumped from the roof, pulling it tight and giving Halbad a vital extra second to recover.
The robot turned and sliced at the rope, then picked up the dropped axe, flinging it in Ellenbrin’s direction. She evaded with ease, the axehead embedding harmlessly into the stonework behind her. Moving in, she pulled daggers from her belt and dived and darted around the robot, looking for weak points, analysing its movement, trying to read its tactics. It was fast, almost to the point of seeming erratic, but there was definitely purpose in its dodges and feints and jabs. It was a challenge for even an aen’fa to avoid the incoming attacks, and a human would likely have no chance of evading - hence Halbad being caught unawares. As it was, she was operating at the limits of what she could handle. She had, at least, distracted it away from Halbad, giving him a moment to recover, but there was no situation in which Ellenbrin would be able to land a meaningful hit on the thing - and it was only a matter of time until it wore her down.
A spear thrust past her head, the robot only barely evading. It was Seline, piling in with both of her weapons, their length giving her the ability to maintain some healthy distance. The two of them danced around the robot, which pirouetted and cartwheeled away from their every move.
“Bored now!” roared Ngarkh, barely giving either of them time to get clear before their superheated plasma drenched the robot in flame. Burning but seemingly unconcerned, it twisted back towards the koth, who had risen into the air on their wings. The fire on the robot’s body intensified, encasing it and blooming as if fanned by an invisible hand - which wasn’t too far from the truth.
Erik had jumped from the tower, breaking his fall with a gravity bubble, and was now approaching with both arms outstretched. He drew signs, continually resetting and recasting, changing the pattern, altering the targeting, wrapping the robot in a physologist’s cloak: a warping of local space that had many practical uses and more than a little offensive potential. The fire spread across the robot’s body like liquid, never escaping into the air or onto the ground, never running out of fuel or extinguishing. Erik was channelling oxygen to it, while concentrating it into a thin epidermal layer. Ellenbrin recalled this particular spell being known as fireskin.
A human or aen’fa would already be dead and burned to a crisp. It would likely take down a koth. The robot kept moving, though it seemed confused, or perhaps partially blinded from the flames enveloping its sensors. Ellenbrin was already starting to piece together the details, from the position of the joints and the movement of pistons and servos, to the faceless head and the heavily protected torso. She was mapping its movements and responses, as she had countless organic creatures, drawing a mental map of its functions and capabilities. There would be a weakness, waiting to be found.
“Hubris is unbefitting a megaship of Max-Earth,” Erik said as he advanced. “Your counters are feeble. Your reactions sluggish. You consume immense energies to do almost nothing. Stop disappointing me.”
The robot writhed, and beneath the fire Ellenbrin thought she perceived something had changed. The texture, perhaps, or the colour of its plating.
“You lack subtlety,” Erik continued, goading the robot. “You try to brute force your way to spellcasting, but know nothing of nuance. You are all text and no subtext. Noise and fury, without meaning. Superintelligence you may be, but in this realm I am the master.”
Ellenbrin signalled to Seline, a series of hand gestures she would immediately understand. There was a nod, then one of her weapons lanced through the air, passing through a part of the robot and embedding deep into the ground. Impaled, the robot was pinned, at least momentarily.
“Erik, stop flirting with it,” Halbad said, retrieving his axe, “and kill the fucker.”
Seline thrust her other spear into the robot, the blade passing through newly revealed gaps in its body. It strained against its restraints, the spears buckling a little from the strain. Ellenbrin saw Erik adjusting his spell, and the flame rushed away to nothing, then the robot slumped as if pressed down by a weight from above.
“It’s still trying to counter my spells,” he said, “and I don’t think those spears will hold it in place for long.”
Halbad nodded, hefting his axe in both hands. “Ellenbrin, how do we kill it?”
The fires having gone out, the robot’s body was once again easily visible, except it had been reduced. Gone were the smooth platings that had looked more like armour than skin, leaving behind a metal skeleton. There were sealed compartments all through the chest area, and the head remained a sealed unit.
Striding up, Ngarkh reached out a massive, clawed hand and grabbed at the head. Tilting it to one side, they closed their jaws over the robot’s neck and bit down, severing the cables and metal tendons. A deep growl, the sound of a volcano preparing to erupt, and then the robot was beheaded. Ngarkh lifted it, dropped it and swung their leg, kicking it off the the side of the mesa.
“That was a pretty good kick,” noted Seline.
Ngarkh grinned and flicked up both thumbs.
The robot thrashed, still very much active. It strained against the spears, metal creaking against metal.
Walking around the prone machine, Ellenbrin examined its torso. “The head might have been its eyes and ears, but its brain is likely in the central torso. Better protected. I’m surprised it uses a bipedal frame. Seems inefficient.”
Erik sniffed loudly. “‘Inefficient’ is a good word to describe it.”
“Less of the science talk,” Halbad said, holding up a hand. “I wanted a kill strategy. Where’s its heart? Its brain? Or whatever this thing would have.”
A spherical container in the centre of the burned torso seemed the likeliest candidate. “That’s the most heavily protected compartment. Open it.”
Gesturing to Ngarkh to follow suit, Halbad gripped one side of the chest and wrenched at it, using the handle of his axe as a lever. The effort was clearly immense, but they managed to prise open the metal rib-cage. Halbad grunted. “Now what?”
“Allow me,” Erik said, stepping closer. “Hold those spears in place. I don’t want this thing grabbing at me.” He released his spells, then concentrated a new one on the sphere. At first nothing happened, then the casing began to dent, and peel, and then a panel ricocheted away and across the street.
“Oh, that’s pretty,” Ngarkh said, leaning over to see into the opened sphere. Inside was a flash of light, moving rapidly back and forth. The robot squirmed, held down by the others and the buckling spears.
Seline looked to Ellenbrin. “Any ideas?” They were all looking at her, expectantly, waiting for her to come up with a solution.
“When in doubt,” she said, drawing an arrow and taking aim with her bow. “Ngarkh?” The koth grinned, and spat a glob of magma onto the arrowhead. It ignited, the flame licking up the shaft. “Step away, everyone.”
They did as she asked, and the robot reared up, seizing the moment to try to break free. She loosed her arrow, the aim perfect, and it pierced into the glowing light within the sphere.
Ellenbrin awoke, unsure of how much time had passed. There was a dull, throbbing pain in her chest. She looked down, to find that she was wearing a different set of clothes.
“What happened?”
“You killed it,” Halbad said, standing over her. “Turns out when you shoot these things in their power core, it goes boom.”
“Big boom,” contributed Ngarkh, peering over Halbad’s shoulder.
“It caught you in the blast,” said Seline, who was moving her hands gently across Ellenbrin’s body. “You’ll be fine in a few. Your armour took the brunt of it, and your eyebrows. Your mohawk may never be the same again.”
She put a hand to her head, finding a tangle of crisp stumps where her hair had once been.
“This is why light armour is bollocks,” Halbad said. “Doesn’t do shit.” He winked at her. “Nice job, though. Our first Max-Earth bounty. Only got a thousand-or-so more of the basards to go.”
Propping herself up on her elbows, Ellenbrin groaned. “Taking down one was hard enough.”
“We got a message. New orders. We’re relocating to Fountain University. I’m seeing a big payday in our future, ladies. Let’s go hunt some robots. We’ll be in the pub by morning.”
Erik was stood off to one side, examining the smoking remains of the robot. He looked up at the sky, towards the sun, and sighed. “We are all going to die.”
References
The Six Blades were first introduced here before properly showing up the story during ‘The Creature’ (March 2022). They got a cameo recently during preparations for the war in ‘Alliances’ (June 2025).
Meanwhile.
I enjoy writing the Six Blades. Can you tell?
Earlier in the year I spent a rather silly amount of money backing Skybound’s Transformers Compendium Set Kickstarter. Today they sent out the digital versions of the sets, ahead of the print editions showing up later in the year. At first glance, they are gorgeous things, even in PDF form.
80s childhood nostalgia aside, this series has a real significance for my own writing. The 1980s Transformers comic was my first proper encounter with long-form serial storytelling, especially Simon Furman’s work. I wrote about my connection to this toy advert franchise in an article a few weeks back:
Having access to legit, high quality versions of stories that were so formative for me is such a treat. Can’t wait to get stuck in, and discover just how rose tinted my glasses really are!
The best thing I read this week came from
, which is starting to become a regular occurrence. It’s about the far-right march through London, which inevitably turned violent and left everyone else feeling deeply uncomfortable or unsafe. As well as his anguish, Ian also finds space for a rallying cry of sorts.“In the years to come, we will all be judged by how we behaved in this period, when the beast woke from its slumbers. Whether we stood up and were counted or hid in the shadows so that its gaze would pass over us.”
If you’re writing your own newsletter, on Substack or elsewhere, Sarah Fay has some interesting observations in this recent piece:
Right, let’s pull back the curtain…
Author notes
As an insight into my brain, I thought it’d be interesting to share my notes for this chapter: specifically how I went about figuring out the action. This is unedited and as-is, complete with mad typos. I’ll insert some commentary along the way…
IT DISARMS HALBAD. ELLENBRIN gets in close, distracting it away from Halbad while he recovers, but she's not able to take it down: she is analysing it, though. SELINE ALSO there. They can't get a hit in.
The thing about this fight is that here are a lot of players: Five monster hunters plus the robot. Keeping track of everyone and, crucially, giving them all something to do is the real challenge. The whole point of this fight is that it has to be difficult, and require every member of the Six Blades to be working together.
NGARKH tries melting it. Peels away a layer, and clearly causes some damage, but doesn't atke it down.
Erik is using his spells to slow it down: has had to get in close, very dangerous. Case of spell and counter spell. (but while PB is faster, Erik is better: more experienced, understands nuanaces of spellcasting) (also notices dimming of the sun: PB is vastly power hungry and inefficient)
I didn’t manage to get as much of Erik observing he sun’s dimming as I wanted, though it does come out in some of his taunting dialogue, and that final shot of him staring up at the sun. The point is that the megaship is inexperienced and sucking enormous amounts of energy to do even the most basic spells: plus its attention is split across thousands of drones. If there had been a single drone, without all the others landing across the city, this fight could have gone very differently.
SELINE is able to PIN IT, thanks to Ngarkh melting some of the outer casing.
ELLENBRIN ANALYSES THE ROBOT WHIE PINNED, figuring out weaknesses, how it work,s even though she's never seen one before
This was when I figured that the POV would be Ellenbrin: having her be the one to analyse the situation and figure out what to do, even in the middle of the fight, made sense. When we’ve seen her before, she’s always had a plan and insight into tactics.
HALBAD and NGARKH prize it open, and ELLENBRIN stabs it throug the power core. (which causes a small explosion that injures her - NGARKH enraged, Seline sets to healing)
Generally it's a hard fight, and that was only one of them.
Message arrives, ordering them to Fountain University.
As you can see, it all played out pretty closely to that outline. I don’t always outline my chapters in this way, but action sequences are their own beast. For an action sequence to work it has to have a certain propulsion, as well as a clear logic and staging. It is its own micro-story. There’s nothing worse than a muddled action sequence in which you can’t quite figure out where everyone is, or why X couldn’t do Y to save Z.
You can see his in poor action movies a lot: I like to spot the moments where something probably made sense in the script, but then the staging of the action sequence undermines the scene. This usually happens when there’s a sacrifice or loss of some sort, even though there were clearly multiple ways the heroes could have avoided the problem. (the death of Pa Kent in Man of Steel springs to mind)
Oh, one last note: this entire scene was originally going to play out in the garrison. I liked the idea of seeing the Owkehu and the city guard having to work together to take down a single drone robot, and really struggling to do so. Here’s the original chapter note:
One of them lands in the garrison courtyard:
It takes city guard and Owkehu working together to take it down. Just one of them. More are spewing out. (like when the Citadel launches cameras in HL2)
While the two opposing forces linking up was a cool moment, it was perhaps a bit on the nose. I then realised that switching over to Pylpo and Jiraa would raise the stakes considerably, and keep things fresh with a completely different angle on the battle — and, more importantly, would give me a way to re-introduced the Six Blades back into the story. I knew they were going to get the mission orders to relocate to the university, but having them just rock up without having this intro would have been less effective.
Plus, it makes a lot of sense for the famed monster hunters to take down a new kind of monster.
OK — see you all next week.
Well, the Six Blades didn't get their asses handed to them (yet), instead, getting to be badass for a chapter... But, it took five to bring down one drone, and PB is learning from every encounter.
Just depends on how long it takes them to collate all the data they're getting...
I enjoyed Erik's taunts, but hubris is also unbecoming for one of the Six Blades. And PB is learning from every encounter.
Just depends on how long it takes them to collate all the data they're getting...
I'm sure, offscreen, the city guard and Owkehu have gotten their act together and taken out more than a single drone, but PB is learning from every encounter.
Just depends on how long it takes them to collate all the data they're getting...
Lola and Yana still have time, but PB is learning from every encounter.
Just depends on how long it takes them to collate all the data they're getting...