Through the Abyss

by Daniel Litchfield

  “Where would you have me go?” Euphretes immediately asked out loud to his mind space, now unshakably confident in the Pillar AI’s information.

  “To Emperor Indus’s bay and then anywhere else but here,” Neuma replied in confusion, unable to see or hear either of the two intruders in her partner’s mind space.

  “From Necros Kyklo to Kivotos Eden,” Adoenye’s wise tone answered. Before Euphretes had an opportunity to ask a follow on question, Kyurious took off, taking Adoenye’s presence with her.

  Suddenly filled with renewed motivation, “Yeah, sorry about that Neuma, got distracted for a second there. But like you said, until I see her body, she will never be gone!” Looking back at Emperor Lesos and Corsica, who were nearly finished getting their suits on, “I’ll find her. Do you hear me? One way or another, I’ll find her and bring her home. But until then, I need to get you two out of here now.”

  “If there is anything I know about you, it’s that you loved her, still love her, and will always pursue my little girl’s love. That’s all I can ask for as a father,” Lesos answered with a hand placed on Euphretes’s armored shoulder. “I’m just sorry that…”

  “Time’s up.”

  SSSCCCRRREEEAAACCCHHH!

  “What the?!” Lesos cried out.

  “Good luck Sir, see you on the other side,” DI6’s voice came out scratchy as the Reverse Evolution Virus began to wipe out Through the Abyss from the inside out. Once complete, the virus would cause the Delta Infiltrator’s jump drives to explode as a final act of concealing its technology. While not a large explosion on its own, it had the probability of cracking open the Flagship because of the explosion’s location taking place inside the already crippled armor. The luxurious room started to shake violently as alarms broke out everywhere, turning the once quiet Flagship into a firestorm of activity.

  “Impact Alert. All Personnel to Battle Stations. Impact Alert.”

  GGGRRRRROOOAAAAAANNNNN!

  The sounds of metal bending at indescribable pressures and temperatures reached all the way back to the team from the very rear of Dawn of Creation. Even the massive Flagship’s stabilizers struggled against the tumultuous collision.

  “Impact Alert. All Personnel to Battle Stations. Impact Alert.”

  SSSCCCRRREEEAAACCCHHH!

  To prevent a catastrophic explosion, DI6 calculated that only a seventeen mile per hour collision was all it would take to safely break into the Flagship’s armor before igniting the engines to claw further into Dawn of Creation. Through the Abyss ate its way into the Flagship’s engines and jump generators, effectively paralyzing Dawn of Creation in one move, and prevented it from jumping to safety with the boarding team still inside. While the collision was occurring, DI6 ensured the virus would also breach into Dawn of Creation. This was done to create additional confusion and chaos in order to distract the entire Flagship from the team’s presence. DI6’s strategy worked perfectly.

  “Sir, we need to go. NOW!” Crestone shouted, knowing the countdown until the virus had completely wiped out Through the Abyss had begun. If they were on Dawn of Creation when the Delta Infiltrator’s virus was complete, they would never make it off the Flagship alive.

  “On it!” Euphretes yelled back while turning to the Royal couple, “Give what’s left to Steward Operatives Urick and Caruso. We can deal with getting the rest on you later if we have to.”

  Sprinting out of the room and into the short hallway, the team sandwiched Emperor Lesos and Corsica between them to ensure maximum protection. Crestone fell to the back with Urick and Caruso to protect the rear of the sprinting formation. Euphretes made his way to the front of the team next to Edey by the time they exited out of the Common Area.

  “Turn right. Third set of doors on your right is the stairwell, fifty paces.”

  Turning the corner with his MR870 raised, Euphretes could see a stream of soldiers, crew, and response teams sprinting down the once empty horizontal passageway that they had just used. Thankful to be moving perpendicular to the traffic, Euphretes threw open the stairwell’s door.

  “Deck Zero Two,” Neuma guided, letting Euphretes know that he needed to climb three flights of stairs to reach the Main Deck; and then another two more in order to reach the desired bay.

  “Deck Zero Two boys!” Edey shouted to the team as he entered the stairwell just behind Euphretes.

  “Count, two. Next platform.” Neuma warned, telling Euphretes that the next deck’s stairwell platform held two enemy combatants.

  POP! POP! POP! Euphretes dropped the first target who had his back to the team.

  “What the?!” The second enemy combatant shouted as he watched his friend get thrown against the wall by the violent projectiles.

  CRACK CRACK! CRACK! Running right behind Euphretes, Edey cleared the second target, allowing the team to continue up the stairs unobstructed.

  Bursting out of the stairwell onto Deck Zero Two, “Turn right. Bay entrance is thirty three paces on the left!” As Neuma spoke, the number 33 popped up on the top right of his visor and counted down with each step, allowing Euphretes to stay focused on the enemy and not have to worry about keeping a pace count. 32. 31. 30.

  “Impact Alert. All Personnel to Battle Stations. Impact Alert.”

  Forced to turn down a horizontal passageway that would assuredly have traffic, Euphretes signaled to the team to be wary of their flank.

  “Count. Three enemies. Dead ahead. Fifteen paces.”

  “Targets. Three. Twelve O’clock. Thirteen paces.” The Admiral warned his team mid run before taking the first shots.

  POP! POP!

  Just inches behind Euphretes, Edey took aim and unleashed his own version of death while the team continued running at full speed.

  CRACK! CRACK!

  CRACK!

  The third target, too slow to raise his weapon but quick enough to react, dove to the ground to avoid the hell flying through the air.

  THRACK!

  Reaching the soldier before he could readjust his aim, Euphretes landed a devastating kick to the soldier’s head, snapping his neck like a popsicle stick. “At least he didn’t feel anything.”

  “Impact Alert. All Personnel to Battle Stations. Impact Alert.”

  “Turn here!” Neuma screamed, the number at the top right of the visor hitting 0.

  Euphretes made a left turn and entered a gigantic, yet mostly empty bay. Instead of Transports and Specters, the floor space was almost vacant; apart from Indus’s collection of rare and exotic Personal Transits. Everything looked brand new, as if the bay was updated with new equipment every other cycle. Cranes attached to the sixty foot ceilings hung lifeless while cat walks criss crossed in the air just below the cranes. Brand new engines and civilian manufactured parts for his personal transits hovered just above the bay floor, the parts alone costing more than a Specter.

  “Transport. Back left. Nine o’clock. Ninety paces,” Neuma informed as Euphretes sprinted toward the center of the bay.

  A split second later, “I’ve got a funky looking Transport at the far end!” Euphretes thundered to the team. “Eighty-five paces!”

  “Impact Alert. All Personnel to Battle Stations. Impact Alert.”

  Turning to ensure the Emperor and his wife had safely made it inside the bay, Euphretes took off for the Transport. Raising his weapon as he breached a wide open space standing between him and his team’s ride, “Count. Four enemies. Your one o’clock. Forty-two paces.”

  Four Baikal Marines could be seen sprinting across the bay floor in an attempt to block the boarding team. “I’ve got four to my one o’clock, forty paces!” Euphretes yelled in warning before taking action.

  POP! POP! One of the running soldiers was thrown in the opposite direction from Euphretes’s rifle, his armor doing little to stop the inevitable death.

  Out of nowhere, Operative Urick darted past the Admiral and slid to his stomach with amazing agility. CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! Taking better aim now that he was on a level sur
face, CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! Urick laid down a wall of projectiles, eliminating two of the remaining three targets.

  “Impact Alert. All Personnel to Battle Stations. Impact Alert.”

  The one survivor managed to duck behind one of Indus’s personal transits. Euphretes could hear the frantic voice screaming, “CONTACT! CONTACT! CONTACT! DECK BAY…”

  THRUMP! Crestone expertly lobbed a grenade behind the transit while the team continued sprinting toward the Transport. “Not the Star Ripper!” Edey moaned, referring to the obnoxiously rare two person transit that was about to get sent into the beyond.

  BOOM! KABOOM! The grenade’s explosion ignited the Star Ripper’s fuel, creating the ideal smoke screen to conceal the rest of the team’s movement. “There’s no way you meant to do that!” Caruso shouted.

  “Why don’t you run over to another one and let’s find out!” Crestone shot right back.

  SSHHHRRRRHHHHH

  “Come on, come on,” Euphretes moaned as the Transport’s door felt like it was taking forever to slide open. “Finally!”

  “Get them out of here!” Neuma cried, knowing the count down for Through the Abyss’s explosion was seventy-five percent complete.

  “LET’S GO!” Euphretes screamed, trying to force the team inside the Transport as fast as possible. Once the Emperor and his wife were safely inside, Euphretes jumped in himself and bulldozed his way to the Transport’s cockpit; immediately beginning the process to initiate a jump sequence.

  Sitting down before the nonflying-aviator’s controls, “Uh, Sir, the bay doors?” Caruso asked, unsure if anyone realized that while they had a ride, their exit was still sealed by a forty-two foot thick armored door.

  “On it!”

  “It’ll open,” Euphretes confidently replied to Caruso.

  Just as Caruso was about to offer a more logical counter argument, Commander Ardein shouted from the rear of the vessel. Pointing at a monitor showing a narrow gap opening in the bay’s exit, “We’ve got movement at the bay doors!”

  “That was a lot easier than I expected.”

  “Well I’ll be,” Caruso whispered to himself in the background.

  Euphretes turned his head to the hull and shouted, “Hang on everyone!” before throwing full power to the engines.

  VVVRRROOOOOOMMM

  The Baikal Royal Protectorate Transport sneaked through the bay doors with only a few feet to spare. Because of all of the confusion and Neuma’s assistance, the ship escaped Dawn of Creation’s bay an enigma; sneaking out without triggering any alarms. The Transport slipped into a jump sequence moments later; heading directly for where the Armada was expected to exit its jump. While it would be another two days until the rest of the Silent Raiders arrived, the rescue team knew for certain that it was a secure location. Once there, Natron teams could come and pick up their Emperor, but Euphretes did not want to further risk Lesos or Corsica’s life by jumping to an unconfirmed location.

  In spite of never seeing the damage that they caused, the boarding team left the pride of the Baikal Military a crippled wreck. Once the virus had completed its death march, Through the Abyss escaped from the universe in a glorious blaze that left Dawn of Creation a chunk of useless metal. Ironically, when the massive Flagship was removed to be torn apart for scrap, it ended up crashing into a salvage moon; destroying the entire installation. Euphretes was true to his word. Dawn of Creation fell hard.

  Just over two days later, the Empirical Admiral finally found a moment to breath. While thankful to be back in his private quarters on Steadfast and Loyal, Euphretes’s relaxation was short lived. A small light flashed across his desk only thirty-three minutes after stepping inside his little sanctuary. Signaling an incoming classified communication’s request, the worn out Admiral reluctantly grabbed for a CMDS and stood at attention, mentally preparing for the worst. The equipment felt heavy on his fatigued head as he logged in and accepted the communications request from his father.

  “Sir,” Was all Euphretes could say, unsure if the Emperor was calling to chew him out or congratulate him.

  “So, I’m told you saved Emperor Lesos,” Carpathian said, doing all he could to sustain his serious expression.

  “I had some help,” Euphretes humbly replied while he stood like a statue.

  “Oh, I’m sure Crestone and Ardein had a jolly good time!” Carpathian paused in a brief moment of silence, then resumed. “Euphretes, first, relax,” The Emperor ordered, allowing Euphretes to sit back down.

  “Roger.”

  “Second, I want to thank you. You may not see it, but you brought a spark of life back into my Ally in a way I could never have imagined. So thank you for giving us a fighting change in this War. Without Lesos, we never stood a chance as long as Broye stayed at the helm.”

  “That went well.”

  “Not going to lie Sir, I expected to be standing at attention taking a verbal beating by now. So I’m just thrown off a little, that’s all.”

  Carpathian’s serious expression melted away, leaving only the face of a loving father. “Euphretes, this call is to hear your voice and see your face, father to son.”

  Still off guard, “Look, I should’ve added the future mission to my last recorded report. I could have at least provided some sort of warning to you in case things went south. It was unacceptable and…”

  Emperor Carpathian cut him off, “Euphretes, there was nothing you could have said that would have convinced me to clear that mission. Consider it Destiny that I was in jump and you couldn’t reach me. And if you’re concerned about destroying my only Delta Infiltrator, don’t be. The Natron Royal Couple is worth far more than a stupid Fleet Vessel. Besides, I may have another one coming out soon,” Carpathian said with a wink.

  Deciding to change the subject now that his conscious was clean, “Speaking of, why were you jumping to an undisclosed location? And does it have anything to do with why Emperor Indus wasn’t on his Flagship?” Euphretes asked.

  “Long story short, it was about Emperor Indus’s behavior with the Natron civilians who are falling under his control. Unfortunately, as always, we got nowhere,” Carpathian expressed while shaking his head before speaking again. “I looked over the report on Demon’s Reckoning and your stowaway; it was almost to the point of unbelievable,” The Emperor commented, stating the obvious.

  Because of their Rank and Status, the two found solace in each other as individuals who had few others in which to confide. Being unable to discuss the burdens of knowledge or the difficult choices made in a personal setting with those you trust can absolutely destroy a leader. The near superhuman Euphretes and the most revered Huron Emperor in modern history were no different.

  “You’re telling me. I almost ordered a “random drug test” for the Command Center’s crew after that one,” Euphretes laughed while throwing up air quotes.

  Carpathian chuckled, “I can only imagine what that report would’ve looked like.”

  “I can throw one together for you if you want, it’s high time I replace my crew. And while you’re at it, might as well do an upgrade to the Rank. I’ve always wanted to be an Emperor, and it seems that’s the next logical step,” Euphretes teased, referring to his recent continuous shifts in positions and ranks.

  “That won’t be necessary,” Carpathian immediately replied.

  “Bummer.”

  “Nice try though,” Carpathian scoffed.

  “Yeah? I thought so,” Euphretes remarked with a chuckle before getting the conversation back on track. “Seriously though, that report left me with more questions than answers as well; and don’t even get me started about when I found out that our stowaway was a Natron civilian with tampered DNA.”

  “Speaking of, any closer to getting an identity on her?” Carpathian asked.

  “Negative. After four days of failed tests and a pervasive deteriorating condition, she was placed on a Flight Vessel Ambulance and sent to a Natron Care Team the second Steadfast and Loyal exited jump. I never even
got a chance to see her to be honest with you, I was a little preoccupied,” Euphretes’s slightly embarrassed tone answered. “I can, however, report that she is showing signs of physical recovery.”

  Carpathian shook his head and spoke with remorse, “I wonder at what point in Indus’s game will he look back and realize the damage he’s done.”

  “It’s not Indus’s game, it’s Her game,” Euphretes whispered to himself before replying. “I don’t know, but I pray that moment comes soon.”

  After another seven minutes of conversation, Euphretes received word from Neuma that the Armada was fully prepared for their long jump.

  “Sir, I’ve got to get to the Command Center to oversee the Armada’s final jump preparations, but might as well call it now while I have you,” Euphretes stated while standing up and squaring his shoulders to the Emperor. “Sir, permission to resume mission and jump to the dessert regions.”

  Nodding his head but not approving just yet. “Any idea where you’re going to start?”