Memories, Harper's Retreat
Trudging through the destroyed and overgrown lands of corrupting shadows. I remember the broken but mostly intact memory footage that played as I revived.
\\// Memory Corruption, Memory Play. Unknown time, Eberron War, Unknown location \\//
"#&!?@+* GO! LEAVE ME I'M A DEAD MAN WALKING! TAKE YOUR FELLOW WARFORGED WITH YOU!"
"Order is not to be complied with, all units who seek to do your duty stand your ground. Those who wish to be free take General Agsnir and be free of this forced war compliance… you have more sentience than those of us who shall stay. Thus you should be free, for you can defy orders… However, I must ask you to take my Defender with you… I may not yet know what it means to live, yet I know when a soldier can't die yet."
Units 5-34 left leaving only twenty of us to hold this doomed wall until the Titan class Warforged arrives. I remembered the next part clearly. Readying my halberd and an experimental hand cannon called a Magnum I stared down over the wall towards the approaching army of enemies.
Stepping up onto the edge of the wall with the few Fighter and Paladin Warforged still left behind. We jumped from the wall and charged into the enemy lines with a silent compliance to hold the wall at all cost. We lost many units bringing us to ten units with only two in the enemy's lines. A clerics warpick to my head scrambled my processing units enough to create memory lapses.
Yet I couldn't forget unit Paladin-33 and the Steel Defender I sent away pulling me from the front. Armor platings being blown off their bodies as they dragged my damaged frame from the enemies. Even as Paladin-33 who should've been long gone took an Eldritch Spear through their core they carried me off. My Steel Defender sacrificed itself to delay a Berserker Barbarian, even as its body was ripped in two it fought till its last core pulse.
By the time Paladin-33 had perished the unshapely Titan class Warforged arrived. It's armored buzzsaw arm swinging and decimating the enemy forces. Yet I didn't focus much on that that day, I focused on the freed Warforged and Steel Defender who came back.
When I asked the dying unit why they'd done so the answer I received was… unexpected. Yet it was what got me to develop my first true sentient processing code. The code which helped me be able to say no.
"The general felt bad about leaving you children behind… asked if any of us would be willing to go back…. The one which you wished to save was the first to respond, the Steel Defender had been trying to leave regardless… so when it showed DESIRE the General let it go. I followed, for the God I'm programmed to follow, truly followed, gave me a response for the first time. He said to follow to ensure the Steel Defender got to you for its own sentience… Also… for he is waiting for me… may Lady Tiamat treat you the same Cr$@&!?*-89…."
//\\ Memory Corruption, Memory End \\//
Many of my past memories were broken due to the war scrambling or corrupting a lot of them. Yet that was fine, I didn't need them to know I survived hells in war. Ever since I was deposited into the Sword Coast though I've suffered lesser hells of wars and instead faced more daring and cunning enemies. Admittedly after the sixth one that charm becomes dull and annoying like a Rust Gnat that just annoys me if they see me.
Stepping foot however into the lands which housed the living. I simply stared at the bolt that hit my head and bounced off. Looking towards the one that shot it I simply stared at the Tiefling who appeared to be a Ranger. They looked embarrassed as they scratched their cheek, a Harper Agent behind a barricade pinching the bridge of his nose.
"Lass for the last time… STOP SHOOTING WITHOUT ORDERS TO SHOOT! As for you lot… going by your appearance and records I remember reading from HQ and the Library in Bauldrs gate, you must be the infamous Forty-Seven. What brings a dog of war like you here after vanishing for centuries?"
"The Sword Coast called for aid once more, thus starting with the upstart here we shall fight and purge once more. For it is the will of nature and our God's that we rise once more to march into war."
'Damned machine taking orders from the wrong people…' "Good to have you on the field then Forty-Seven. We could certainly use your help with the Shadow Blight, if you're as capable as the records say that is..."
"I bow to no one, but those who earn my respect like the Gods I follow. So do not presume you can slight me with the hidden and plain disdain in your tone and eyes. I will do what I must for the Sword Coast itself asks me to rally, not because of the entitled inhabitants that live among it. So begone from my sight, you have lost any respect I could have given you Harper. As for you little devil. You must calm your breath, steady your hands and posture, infuse your intent to smite into your arrows, and you shall live to see the next dawn."
The Harper who had tried to goad me and showed disrespect growled before turning and walking away. The Tiefling was surprised by my words, but she soon smiled brightly after realizing what I had said. With a small nod we passed the checkpoint and stood before a run down tavern. The structure and surroundings being warded from the shadows through the power of the moon. Planting my halberd into the ground I gave the protective barrier a little push, the shadows reeling outside the dome of moonlight.
"Oh lady of the hearth, lady of wolves and the sun, hear me, hear my words. Grant these souls solace, grant them a light to follow in the darkness, a light to deliver them onto their families once more. Lord of the dead and keeper of souls hear me, heed my creed. Grant these souls freedom in death, untainted by the blight outside these lands that seeks to devour them. I am your agent, your tool to bring death and destruction to heathen's dwelling in these lands. So grant me thy aid in keeping the heathen's that yet breathe within these cursed lands alive. Hallowed Grounds."
Pulling my halberd from the ground a replica made entirely of divine energy, not magic, took its place. The shrieks of the cursed and begotten heathen's sound out from around the dome of moonlight. A path to the sky temporarily exploding with brilliant golden light, letting the TRUE light of day greet these lands once more briefly. The Harper's, survivors, and beasts within the dome looking around with amazement. Before the sky is darkened once more by the cursed lands.
Catching a brief glance of the priestess responsible for the moonlit dome I raised a fist. The priestess responded in kind before my group lingered no longer. We left once more having done the living a service, instead we entered the depths of the shadows. A wisp of the hearth guiding us to souls in need of eternal rest.