Warhammer: The Time Traveler

Chapter 10 Servo Skull
In the small town, the Chaotic Blade Society was still making a ruckus, causing destruction and searching everywhere.

They even argued endlessly about which dilapidated house was more suitable as a "command center" and where to set up sentry posts, completely unaware that they had triggered an automated defense system far beyond their comprehension—an efficient system cleanup operation had already begun.

In the garage, Rebecca and Pila almost held their breath, listening intently to the sounds outside.

The clamor of shouts and curses seemed to have undergone a strange change.

Some sounds suddenly stopped, as if they had been precisely cut off.

The sounds of destruction gradually thinned out, replaced by a few extremely brief gasps, as if they had been forcibly forced back into the throats.

In addition, there was an extremely subtle sound they had never heard before, like the hum of a high-frequency energy weapon being activated, or the low groan of a precision machine operating at its limit. This sound made their auditory nerves feel slightly numb.

"What...what sound?" Pila asked in a breathy voice, her eyes darting nervously behind her goggles, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound.

Rebecca shook her head in equally confusion, gripping the almost empty pistol in her hand.

A strong, instinctive sense of alertness crept up her spine, as if the air were filled with invisible static electricity.

Meanwhile, outside, a highly precise cleanup operation was underway with maximum efficiency.

A member of the Chaotic Knife Gang, who had just picked up a spray paint can and was about to graffiti on the wall, suddenly went limp and fell down silently, with only the soft "click" of the spray paint can rolling on the ground.

Not far away, another guy, who had his back to his accomplice and was shouting for backup into the walkie-talkie, suddenly lost contact. He swayed for a moment, then quietly collapsed to the ground.

"Enemy attack! Take cover..." A guy who looked like a leader finally realized something was wrong and shouted in terror, while trying to find the source of the attack and rushing to take cover.

But his voice stopped abruptly, and his movements ceased immediately.

Only then did the remaining members of the Chaotic Blade Society discover in horror that a pale human skull, like an ancient sculpture, gleaming with the cold light of non-human metal, was silently suspended in mid-air.

Its empty eye sockets flashed red light, its metal jaws opened and closed slightly, and the miniature laser emitters protruding from its sides were operating efficiently.

Its movements are silent and defy the laws of physics; sometimes it flashes across a broken window sill, sometimes it blends perfectly into the shadow of the building, and the next moment it appears without warning at another angle.

"Ghost... ghost!"

"It's that...skull! Hit it! Hit it now!"

Panic erupted instantly among the survivors like a plague.

The members of the Chaotic Blade Society hysterically raised all sorts of firearms and frantically poured bullets at the elusive skull.

Bullets rained down on the walls, the ground, and abandoned vehicles, scattering countless fragments and sparks and creating a tremendous noise, yet they didn't even graz the edge of a skull.

It can always gracefully and precisely evade all chaotic trajectories with minimal movement, and every imperceptible brief pause is inevitably accompanied by a precise red beam and the fall of an enemy.

This doesn't feel like a battle; it's more like a silent and efficient cleanup operation.

It ignores terrain obstacles, rudimentary bunkers, and numerical superiority.

No screams lasted even a moment, because everything happened too fast, too precisely, too unexpectedly. Rebecca and Pila peered in astonishment through the cracks in the wall and the hole in it at the one-sided, unimaginable confrontation outside.

They watched as the mechanical skull moved through the streets with the precision of a drill, and watched as the arrogant members of the Chaotic Blade Society, who had been so powerful just minutes before, fell one by one.

There were no roars, no cries of pain, only the attackers' frantic, gradually dwindling gunfire and the muffled thuds of objects falling to the ground.

This absolute and efficient response was far more shocking than any chaotic battlefield scene.

In just a minute or two, or perhaps even less, the gunshots and the final curses outside completely disappeared.

A deep silence enveloped the town, with only the mournful sound of the wind blowing through the empty ruins, as if whispering about everything that had just happened.
-
In the garage, Rebecca and Pila dared not breathe, their bodies drenched in cold sweat.

The deathly silence outside, imbued with an atmosphere of impending doom, was even more unsettling to them than the earlier clamor and frenzied gunfire of the rioters.

Pira trembled slightly, barely able to contain herself, and whispered to Rebecca, "...Is it...is it still outside?"

Rebecca, pale-faced, stared intently at the faint light filtering through the crack and hole in the door, and shook her head very slightly.

She couldn't see anything, but the feeling of being monitored by a highly advanced automated system didn't dissipate with the end of the external confrontation; instead, it became even clearer.

It felt like an eternity had passed, and there was still no movement outside.

Only the eternal sound of the wind pierces through the ruins, bringing with it a faint, indescribable, strange odor.

Finally, Rebecca mustered her courage, her hands and feet slightly numb, and cautiously approached the hole in the wall again, holding her breath as she peered out.

The streets were a scene of intense confrontation.

That terrifying, nightmarish, pale mechanical skull had vanished, as if it had never existed.

But just as Rebecca was about to breathe a sigh of relief, she caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye—at the end of the street, on the edge of the dilapidated roof of a tall building, the skull was quietly and eerily suspended there!
Its empty eye sockets seemed to be pointing precisely and motionlessly towards the garage where they were hiding.

It remained motionless, like a work of art casually placed on a rooftop, but having personally experienced the brief yet awe-inspiring confrontation, this extreme stillness exuded a persistent and undeniable presence.

It did not leave.

It's just monitoring.

They monitored them silently, patiently, and absolutely.

Rebecca jerked her head back as if she'd been electrocuted, slid down against the cold, rough wall, and sat on the floor, feeling her heart leap into her throat once again.

"What's wrong, little sister? What did you see?" Pila noticed her unusual behavior and asked anxiously, her voice trembling.

Rebecca's lips trembled, and after several seconds, she managed to squeeze out a reply in a dry, sandpaper-like voice: "...It didn't leave..."

She looked up, her eyes filled with complex emotions. "It's right there on the roof outside... watching us. Always watching."

(End of this chapter)