[Galley] of the Hound

Galley inched towards the intersection with clenched fists. The gentle landing of her padded feet, the shifting of the parts of her robes not sacrificed to bind her chest, and her own breaths all seemed too loud as she tried to track the incoming threat. Her senses extended beyond what her nose could tell her: the person was just a few feet away now, and she was completely naked. Galley knew her sex, but just barely. The human parts of this woman--and she had surely, absolutely been human once--were long-since outpaced by the cybernetic ones, and Galley could tell she was at least somewhat modern. The stink of mana was almost gone, replaced with mundane robotics brought up to a level not yet permitted for common use on Earth. It was still a proper Praxis cyborg, of course: mana batteries sang in her torso, a fortified enchantment protected her spine, and some form of weaponry... an appendage, and something else high-powered.

Galley had stood in the hall for a clean minute, waiting for more signs of approach from either end of the hall. The Lawmen had backed off, and the door they had so easily negotiated had been replaced by a hidden, sliding panel of gray steel that came down to replace it. Galley was stuck controlling her breaths and trying to gauge what was happening... and the strange odors and terrible emotions rolling from the barriers gave her hope that everyone was alive, even if things were dire.

But then the cyborg began to approach, and Galley wondered what, if any, surprise she had. No Breaker Arms, no backup, and no way to crack into the barriers everyone else is stuck in, even if I wanted to. They can see this hallway clear enough to kidnap the others... so I have to assume they know I'm here. Galley did her best to ignore the sword at her side; promise or no, it was an unknown element... possibly more dangerous than the killer machine she was about to face.

The footsteps were drawing closer. No words came from the cyborg, but Galley could sense... an ease in her. She was not threatened; she felt secure. Galley had to wonder: did she so barely consider Galley a threat as to not even anticipate a fight? Or were their sensors so magic-reliant as to miss her? Fear and hope tried to bubble up in Galley as she trembled-

Identify. Bury. Move.

Galley had no answers... but she did have the first sign of the enemy as she walked into view: perky breasts, laid bare, cleared the horizon of the wall at the same time as the white teeth of her cyber-tentacle's tip. Her soft blue eyes, outlined in gold, barely had time to flick to Galley before the Soulless lunged.

Cyborgs can turn off pain sensors to avoid being stunned. Just hit and go. Right-hand knuckles crushed cheekbone and shoved the red-haired nudist's face away as she tried to assess this new situation. Her tail acted on instinct and looped over her head to try and stab at where Galley had been, but the Hound of Titusville was already behind her. You smelled it earlier, the mana transmitter. Base of the tail... to the... right! With her left fist still clenched, Galley threw her haymaker down at where the tail was joined to the base of the cyborg's spine. The metal there did not surrender nearly as lightly; blood exploded from Galley's left hand as she drove it as deep as it would go into magically fortified steel, denting it slightly... but not enough to cut the feed. At most, all she did was throw the enemy slightly backwards and off-balance.

The tentacle answered, and the cyborg was now in control. Galley tried to wrap around again, continuing her counter-clockwise circle as the cyborg spun to catch up, but a glowing light at the palm of the tentacle's four-taloned hand told her there was yet a third eye to worry about. Galley blasted herself into the cyborg's side to throw the tentacle off, but it adjusted effortlessly and cut Galley's upper-left arm, maiming half her weaponry further. Agony seared through Galley’s vision as her body demanded to cry out-

Identify. Bury. Move.

The cyborg wasn't going to leave it to her fifth appendage: electricity arced between metal talons as she drove her left hand into Galley's ribs, clawing through skin and delivering what ought to have been enough of a shock to put down a horse.

But it was magic, all the same, and Galley had put away the pain. She took the dropped guard for all it was worth and drove her right fingers into the cyborg's eyes. Merciless digits dug into jelly and wires before the cyborg could jerk her head backwards, her eyes squeezed shut to hold in the ruin. While Galley leapt back into the opposite hallway, the cyborg continued her pursuit and raked up, slicing through robes and flesh as her talons cleaved five bleeding lines across Galley’s left breast and nicked her chin. The tail gave another testing stab and barely missed Galley’s elbow as she withdrew; it opened its sharp beak of weapons to glare at the offending intruder.

Galley shook her hand as clean as she could get it. She had put a dozen feet between herself and her opponent, but she raised her guard, ready for a renewed attack… or at least, she tried. Her right fist raised, but her left did not. The burning she felt cut deeper than a mere flesh wound; something important had been severed, and dark crimson oozed from the opened muscle of her bicep as her arm uselessly hung to her side. She was down to one arm, then… and a sword she couldn’t use that was slowly being painted in her blood.

The cyborg could not have been older than her early twenties, if that. She was possibly of Malaysian descent, though with Praxis one could never be sure. Cyborgs this young were, according to the Order, usually debt slaves or humans bred to become weapons. But where Praxis cruelty ended and Order propaganda began was no longer clear to the former Hound. But the creature before her... was monstrous, all the same. Her pose went low as she contemplated Galley... and, without further warning, fired a gout of blue fire from her mouth.

"Shit-!"

The flames engulfed the Soulless with the stink of ozone and the heat of burning air. Whatever Galley had used to dye and hold up her latest mohawk was once again burned away by magical fire... along with her clothes and feet wraps. Galley's breasts, once again free, expanded to their natural, unwieldy state as Galley cursed under her breath. The fire was magical… she was safe, from that at least.
Identify. Bury. Move.

The flaming gout finally came to an end from the cyborg’s now-blackened lips. Only Galley remained there with some bits of ash from her ruined clothes now fluttering off her skin in flakes. Only Galley... and the sword, of course. With her hair once again drooping against her head, she looked down at the blade... and saw that her right hand, now her only truly good one, had come to rest on its grip. Her knees were bent. She did not remember thinking to strike such a pose.

The Umbral Voice of Southern Winds. A gaudy name, to Galley Gallows… and a fake name. What a strange thought...

"You are a null entity." The cyborg's voice was painfully human, young, and soft. Galley tried to focus less on the implication and more on how, even with blood trickling from ruined eyes, she addressed her so calmly. "It will be very difficult to disable you without killing you. I offer you this single opportunity to surrender-"

Maybe it was the pain in her arm, the blood loss, the dire odds, the arrogance of the cyborg’s warning… but no, it was none of those things. It was the smell of blood… and how it wafted from all three barriers where the closest things to friends she had were being tortured or killed. Identify- "I'm not surrendering without the rest of them."

It left her lips with her anger.

Galley realized her mistake too late... and that expression, uncensored, filtered into the cyborg until her brow furrowed in the first sign of emotion this gutted human had shown. Well, not like she can be any meaner...

The cyborg's forearms and hands split open in uniform formation and let expand from their fully artificial depths a twin set of what appeared to be chainsaws. The thousands of micro-teeth on each chain sparkled as the blades began to rotate.

"Geez."

The cyborg ran forward... and then planted a foot on the wall, and then on the ceiling, as she made her spiraling sprint across the gap and into Galley. Tentacle, chainsaws, and hate were now bearing down on the wounded Soulless. There really was no other choice left; even if it led to her ****, it was better than waiting for another.