Hm… I thought it might’ve happened along with Taylor’s arm injury, but looking back at when that happened, and it doesn’t make sense for several reasons:
- Immediately after the injury took place, the armband announced the deaths of Escutcheon and Herald. Counterpoint: She could’ve heard it from the other armbands without noticing that her own was silent.
- If the system had announced “Skitter deceased, CD-6″ just then, she definitely would’ve heard it, with how many other armbands were around at the time.
- The injury happened before Taylor a) had a decisive role in getting Clockblocker out of his precarious position, b) was present for an extended time-out, and c) got orders from the Protectorate members in charge. There’s a good chance Armsmaster would’ve noticed she was alive there, not to mention anyone else who knew who she was.
- Oh yeah, and we got messages from the armband as late as a few paragraphs before Taylor noticed it was dead, making all the arguments above pointless.
So what exactly happened beween Kid Win going down and Kaiser getting killed?
And then Leviathan was in view, entering the same street I was on. As if to herald his coming, a massive wave crashed hard against the barrier of ice Eidolon had erected around the wrecked Boardwalk, the spray seemingly reaching nearly to the stormclouds above.
One shoulder was bloated, five times the normal size, twisted, like it was covered in elephantine tumors, bleeding openly. He was injured in other places, had a hole through the side of his stomach, a larger blackened wound at the base of his neck, and a fifth of his face was missing, torn off below the cheekbone. He didn’t seem to be suffering much. He held Kaiser’s upper torso in the one claw, tossed it casually to one side. The man’s legs were nowhere to be seen.
Wait, what? I hadn’t heard the report on Kaiser’s death. I checked my armband, where my arm hung immobile at my side.
It was dead, offline. Black screen.
Hm. Nothing that seems to have anything to do with the armband.
Maybe it did get damaged in 8.3, but managed to keep going for a while? Sabotage is also a possibility, but I have no clue who would want to do that to Taylor or why (except Leviathan, naturally, but he doesn’t seem to have the capability to do that without directly attacking).
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