by Ramy Vance
“In briefings concerning Vardis, he said he was from a similar plane as the Dark One. It would make sense that Vardis had access to the same stuff.”
Roy leaned back, whistling. “How much of Myrddin’s files have you read?”
“At the moment, everything written in English.”
Anabelle raised her hands, waving them around to communicate her frustration. “Okay, everyone needs to slow down. I have no idea what anyone is talking about. Do you, Terra?”
Terra was picking her nails. She looked up, bored. “Honestly, until I have a clear idea of whether or not we’re talking about something I need to kill, I’m mostly not listening. I’m much more of an action kinda girl. Plot can suck it.”
Abby took a deep breath as her screen dinged, showing another person was ready to join the chat. “I told Persephone to join us. She’s at the base. But I think she’d be able to explain some of this better than me.”
Persephone’s face popped up in the chat meeting. Her arms were bunched close to her body, and her eyes moved from one box of faces to the next quickly.
Abby continued talking as her mind raced. “The Netherverse is the realm the Old Ones exist in and it’s kinda like antispace or antimatter. It’s the polar opposite of ours, a place that exists in all the ways that the nine realms don’t.”
Terra folded her arms and leaned back in her chair. “See, this is why I don’t care about plot. I practically need a Ph.D. in quantum physics to understand anything. Hey, Terra, punch this. Tackle that. See how that makes more sense?”
“The Netherverse is a place of pure energy. What I’m trying to say is that the Dark One has access to that. I’ve been running tests, and I think I’ve figured out how the Dark Gates work. They’re teleporting through the Netherverse, but there are only certain access points, which is why we’re always able to get readings on them when they do open. And I think the gnome homeworld is the largest touching point.”
Everyone in the group chat looked at Abby with blank faces. “Abby, when was the last time you slept?” Anabelle asked.
“That’s not important. Persephone, tell them what you told me.”
Persephone held her cursed arm in her other as she spoke. “The Dark One was the one who introduced the Black Melody to my people and me. That’s what we call it, and it is from the Netherverse. The Dark One uses it to bolster his armies. But the Melody, it’s…”
The drow started to panic. Her breathing sharpening, her lips trembled, and she started to shiver.
Abby looked up what floor Persephone was. The drow was in the medbay, not too far from Abby’s lab. She got up and raced over there.
Persephone was sitting in front of her computer, her back heaving as she sobbed.
Abby walked up behind Persephone and rested her hand on the drow’s back. Persephone whirled to see Abby, who sat on the bed beside her. She hugged Persephone tightly as the drow cried.
Terra pulled at her shirt collar as she made mock kissy-faces.
Anabelle’s eyes widened and she slashed her hand across her throat, signaling to Terra to stop joking.
Once Persephone’s tears dried up, she spoke again, gripping Abby’s hand tightly. “The Melody, it gets in your head. It starts to take over. You start to lose yourself as it asserts itself over you. It doesn’t talk to you, not the way that we talk, but it’s always speaking to you.”
Persephone held up her hand, and her fingers slowly peeled apart as tentacles forced their way through her skin. “At first, I couldn’t control it. That was why the Dark One had me chipped, so he could control us both. But now…now I can, but the Dark One is starting to infect his army with it, along with the chips. He’s getting better at control.”
Roy finally picked his head up off his table. “Ugh, this is the single worst week I’ve ever had.”
Chapter Twelve
Sarah was waiting for the second wave of enemies, and she was already exhausted. She’d had to push herself to the third gate, and the effort was taking a toll. Usually, she had time to work her way up to the gate, but the onslaught of enemies had meant she had to dig deep and quickly.
She wasn’t certain how many she’d taken out. The bodies had disappeared almost as fast as they had appeared.
The spy was already queuing up the next batch of firewall enemies for Sarah to dispatch. Sarah wished the gnome had said something about the sheer volume of forces she was expected to fight.
“You ready for the next ones?” the spy asked.
Sarah inhaled, held her breath, felt it in her. She centered herself, rooting her feet to the ground, feeling her energy flowing through her. “Yeah, go ahead.”
The gnome typed into his handset, and the green plane shifted and morphed. They were in a replication of an old gnomish city, one built above ground. The buildings didn’t extend far into the sky, but they did feature much of the famous gnomish clockwork mechanisms.
The wave of enemies appeared in front of Sarah. Thirty orcs and goblins faced her, all armed with plasma rifles and plasma axes.
Sarah had been wanting to stretch herself for some time, to see what she was truly capable of. Today was going to be the day. Usually she had a multitude of tools at her disposal. Right now, the only thing Sarah had was her fists.
She didn’t wait for the orcs to come to her. She concentrated on her breathing, on where her feet were, and she opened her fourth chakra—the heart chakra.
Energy exploded within her body, and her heart raced, blood pumping faster than before.
Sarah surged forward, throwing herself into the midst of the orcs.
They opened fire as she sailed through the air, twisted to avoid the blasts, and landed in the middle of the horde. Her fist connected with the ground and her ki reverberated around them, pushing the orcs back.
Sarah bounced to her feet, swung a fist at the closest orc, and hit him in the jaw. The bone cracked on impact, but another orc was attempting to grab her. She gripped his hand the moment it touched her shoulder, snapped the arm at the wrist. She did a backflip. Sarah landed behind the orc and tore his arm off.
She whirled and clocked an orc who was slashing at her at her face with its ax. She dropped to her feet, swiped at the legs of another orc, and rolled backward. As she got to her feet, the orc swung its ax at her again.
Sarah caught the ax between her palms, the plasma burning her skin. She fought through the pain, twisted the ax away, and flipped it in the air before throwing it at the orc. She was reaching to grab the ax when she heard rifle fire.
A blast of plasma flashed past Sarah, and she ducked to the side.
She sprang into the air, pulling all her ki into her chest, letting it burn. And she unleashed it in a large burst of flame. Just enough, she thought as she landed. She dashed forward, picked up an abandoned ax, and eliminated two goblins aiming their weapons at her.
Sarah could feel her body vibrating. If opening the gates didn’t numb part of her pain, she’d be able to feel her muscles screaming.
More orcs materialized: a small army. Sarah pulled herself out of her head, nestling her consciousness back within her body. It didn’t matter how many there were. She could do this.
Sarah unlocked the next chakra gate. Was she at the sixth now? It didn’t matter. She would know once she encountered the eighth gate.
Her body flowed like a river through the mass of orcs and goblins, tearing through flesh with the precision of a butcher’s blade. She weaved between plasma blasts as she increased her speed, her eyes now incapable of keeping up with her physical movements. Sarah was trusting that her hands and feet would find their way.
Finally, when Sarah stopped, the dead lay at her feet in droves. She sat beside the spy, slowing her breathing, feeling her ki, and preparing for the next wave.
Abby’s meeting had taken a break until everyone could reconvene in the war room. Until then, she and Persephone were sitting together quietly on the drow’s bed.
“I didn’t think that was going to
happen,” Persephone said. “We aren’t supposed to do that…get that emotional. My parents would be so embarrassed.”
“Really? My dad would’ve been proud of me if I’d been able to do that. He always said you can’t judge a man based on what he lets you see. Walls are meant to be unbuilt.”
Persephone’s eyes were still teary. She looked dreamily at Abby. “I’m glad you came to see me in person. I didn’t want the first time we saw each other again to be over a computer screen.”
“Sorry, I didn’t come straight to see you. There’s been a lot—”
“You don’t have to apologize. I know you have a lot of responsibilities. I can’t imagine how stressful this must be. If I was put in this position in a drow army, I would have quit by now.”
Abby blushed and scooted closer nervously. But she shifted away from Persephone again. “Doubtful. You seem to be pretty capable.”
“You saw Persephone under the control of the Dark One. Usually, I’m just a nervous wreck.”
“Not true. You handled yourself pretty well with that dragon we fought together in the arena. And there wasn’t a microchip in you. It was all you.”
Persephone smiled from underneath the mass of her hair. “You’re really sweet.” She was quiet for a little bit, and then blurted, “I missed you a lot. I think about you every day. Is that weird to say?”
More than anything else in the world, Abby wanted to move closer and kiss Persephone. She wanted the war to be over. She wanted to be someplace far away, alone with the drow. “No, I don’t think it’s weird. Been thinking a lot about you too.”
Persephone wrapped her fingers around Abby’s. Her skin slowly broke apart, and little tentacles slithered over the girl’s fingers. Nanobots poured from Abby’s body and rolled over the drow’s pale skin.
Abby stared deep into Persephone’s eyes, unable to pull herself away. It was as if each moment was slipping away too quickly. She was desperate to grab them and keep this time together from ever ending.
The door to the medbay opened, and both girls jumped, Abby almost falling off the bed as she scrambled to see who had entered.
Terra stood on the threshold, drinking a beer and shaking her head. “Jesus, did I just interrupt you two from holding hands? How old are you?”
Abby stuttered as she said, “Sixteen.”
Persephone stared at her cursed arm. “One hundred and ten.”
Terra downed the last of her beer. “All right, so the first part of being a teenager who is a special agent in a secretive military base is to take advantage of the fact that you have your own goddamn rooms! Now get your asses up. We gotta finish this briefing.”
The third wave was coming. Sarah could feel them forming in the ether of the digital plane. She hoped whatever the spy was looking for was worth it.
Sarah stood.
An army of a hundred orcs and goblins appeared before her.
She relaxed her body, focused with all her power, and visualized the eighth and final gate opening wide. She opened her eyes as her irises turned white. Her whole body trembled, and she felt like her skin was coming undone. If she didn’t move, she might explode.
Her body moved forward almost of its own accord. She felt like a passenger in a car whose driver had greatly overestimated their ability to handle wide curves while speeding.
Sarah hit the first orc with enough force that its head exploded. She was on to the next, gliding through the mass of bodies, each orc moving slower than she’d ever seen a living creature move.
Snails surrounded Sarah, beings barely capable of movement.
And all the while, Sarah could feel her muscles coming undone, the lactic acid having reached a point where it had begun to burn her alive from the inside.
Bodies of orcs soared into the air as she plowed through them, moving at a truly superhuman speed, her body slowly tearing itself apart.
But the adrenaline kept her going. That, and the sound of cracking skulls and crushed bones. She barely registered the ax that hit her shoulders, but the blow wasn’t enough to slow her. Sarah continued to decimate the orcs as though she were a tornado.
A plasma blast came flying at her, and before she could think any better, she slashed at it with her hand, cutting through the plasma, and searing her skin almost down the bone.
Yet, the severe injury did not stop her. She barreled through the orcs, circling them, moving faster than any of them could see. She picked off the stragglers on the outside before leaping into the thick of it.
Then it was suddenly over.
Sarah sat up in her bed and started coughing blood, holding her chest tight. It felt like her lungs were caving in. She pitched over the edge of her bed, the last hour of combat catching up with her within an instant as all eight gates closed simultaneously.
Every blast, ax-wound, and attack hit her system, coupled with the internal damage she’d received from the stress on her body.
Sarah couldn’t stop screaming. Everything hurt so much. All she could do was lie on the floor, blood seeping from her eyes, nose, and ears as Kravis rushed to her side.
The world faded.
Abby, Terra, Anabelle, Roy, Creon, and Persephone sat in the war room. Roy was pacing back and forth, occasionally looking at Myrddin’s chair, but refusing to sit in it. “What are our options? Anybody got a plan?”
Terra laughed loudly as she finished her beer. She pulled a twelve-pack from under her chair and tossed one to each person in the room. “Plans? I thought that was your department.”
Roy threw his arms up in the air. “If it isn’t obvious by now, I’m a fucking grunt! Plan a mission or extraction what-fucking-ever. Yeah, I can do that. Figuring out how to run a whole goddamn war is a little bit outside of my field of expertise.”
Anabelle stood and went to Roy’s side. She put her arms around him in an attempt to calm him down.
Terra looked from Abby to Creon and inhaled sharply. “Damn, Roy, I was kidding with you. I didn’t mean it like that.”
Anabelle gave Roy a kiss on the cheek, and he retired to Myrddin’s chair. “No, I know. I’m just not…this isn’t what I trained for. Abby knows more of what was going on in Myrddin’s head than I do.”
“Then maybe we should ask Abby,” Anabelle suggested.
Initially, Abby’s heart jumped, but Roy was right. She and Martin did have the best understanding of Myrddin’s thoughts. “The gnome world is the nexus of the Dark One’s operation. It’s his tie to the Netherverse, so we need to hit that. Sever his center point for the Dark Gates.”
Roy pulled up an image on the holoscreen. “The Gnome World is completely overrun by the Dark One. All we have are small resistances here and there. Nothing capable of taking back the planet.”
“I’m not saying take back the planet. The majority of the Dark One’s forces are in one spot. Sarah’s done countless recons on it. We hit it, then we take it further. Dump everything we got into cutting off the gnome world from the Dark One. Surround it with our own defenses. Contain the threat on the planet. Starve it out.”
The DGAs and the other exchanged glances. Anabelle spoke first. “That’s a very dangerous strategy, Abby. If we put all our resources into that, we’ll be defenseless across other theaters.”
Abby wasn’t going to back down. She knew this was the only real option. “If we cut the Dark One off from the Dark Gates, he can’t attack Earth anymore. He’s being held off on all other fronts already. It’ll buy us a lot of time.”
“And the lich?”
“I’m still working on something.”
An incoming message blinked across the holoscreen. Roy accepted it, and Kravis appeared on the holoscreen. “Urgent news. You need to hear this now.”
Roy motioned for Kravis to continue.
“We recently received intel on the Dark Gate structure. Got a read on their network. There’s a gate that doesn’t seem to go anywhere. We don’t know what it is, but it’s heavily guarded. In addition, that black crap we found earl
ier? All of the shipping routes for it are coming from that gate. Whatever the hell it is, it’s pretty fucking important.”
Anabelle and Roy looked at Abby as she nodded solemnly. “All right, Kravis. Anything else?” Roy asked.
Kravis looked over his shoulder. Sarah came limping onto the screen. She looked like hell. “This was the Dark One’s most heavily guarded secret on the gnome world. Put it to good use.”
“Will do.”
The holoscreen turned off as Roy leaned forward in his chair. “Okay, Abby, you got it. I’ll divert whatever I can to the gnomish world for an offensive, but I’m not sending all of you. I can’t risk it. Abby, you’re staying here to help coordinate. I don’t care what you have to say. You know too much, and I need you here.”
Abby couldn’t disagree. Even now, her head was flooding with potential plans.
Roy continued, “Terra, I know you want to get out and fight, but we still need you for recruitments. You and Cire have been turning the tide for us. People are finally beginning to pay attention. We’ll get you out busting heads again soon.”
“Which leaves you, Anabelle. You’re going to handle this mission.” Roy activated his comm. “What’s the status on Blackwell and Naota? They getting along yet?”
A voice piped up. “Yes, sir. They’re buddies now. Took a lot of Clockwork Orange reprogramming, but we got there.”
“Good.” He shut off his comm and turned to Anabelle. “I’ll send Blackwell and Naota with you. A small squad to break into this Dark Gate, disable it, and get the resistance defenses up and running. We’ll coordinate with Sarah and Kravis. We move out tomorrow.”
Silence fell over the war room before Roy stood and said, “This is our big push. If Abby’s right, this offensive will make or break the war with the Dark One.”
Chapter Thirteen
Anabelle woke up and meditated. She’d never been comfortable with a morning practice, but recently, the early sessions had been growing on her. If she thought about it, she was inspired by Abby, who was early to rise and late to sleep. Anabelle wondered what her life would have been like if she’d had a similar work ethic as the child.