(10) 28mm figures

Sculpted by: Aaron Brown

In her own way, the Handler knew she had behaved badly. Now she was trying to atone. 

By noon she had found six of her charges, each alone and scared out of their wits by what had happened. 9965W3 was frightened too, but her sense of duty, no matter how rudimentary, had risen to the fore sometime after dawn. By then the eight Mindless were scattered halfway across the landscape. Seven of them, anyway. ‘4W1 was dead, her helmet lost somewhere, her lungs dried out and her skin wan and flaky. ‘5W3 had taken her weapon and grenades and marked the body for Resumption, as she had been taught. Everything she did was as she had been taught. 

Conditioning taught her “When a unit breaks and seeks cover, check dark places, small places.” ‘5W3 had found them cowering; one beneath a fallen tree, another inside a cleft in the granite cliffs, and so on. Only 99521W16 was still missing. She had done a good job of selecting her hiding spot. The Handler paid no attention to search patterns or doubling back on her tracks. She simply looked everywhere that she herself would try to hide in. Their Companion, Comm115, followed gamely along. All its channels were open but no signals from the Par’wet came through. 

‘5W3 had spent the night after the lightning storm in a half-submerged hollow log. Water was still dripping from inside her armor. At first she had listened to the Par’wet and had stayed within the protective circle of the Companions. Their metal skin spit and crawled with electricity, but the others were safe. Then the trees had started exploding, showering them with sawdust. She had started to panic, and when the Drahouin pointed into the woods, she broke. The others first followed, then scattered. Now she had to find them, and the Par’wet. 

The Mindless marched along behind her, as they had on a dozen patrols before, their confidence restored by the light of day. She still had her weapon and, more importantly, her Key. ‘5W3 was so absorbed in the search she failed to notice the trees thinning out. Her mind was so atrophied by the Calmative it was likely she would not have been concerned by it in any event. That was what the Par’wet was for. Without her, ‘5W3 and the squad walked right into the shadow of the palisade. 

‘21W16 laid there in a pool of blood. ‘5W3 finally looked up and recognized the high wooden walls as a to’ok structure. ‘21W16 had not been blasted, however. Her throat was slit. The Handler stood there for a full minute, trying to figure out what had happened. No one challenged them from the walls. The Mindless milled about, 9974W4 poking at a shiny rock with the barrel of her rifle. They stood there still, ‘5W3 examining the body and staring up at the walls, when the Par’wet emerged from the trees an hour later. 

The scout saw them standing there and slipped back into the woods.

Bare Head Variants: