Florence rested as she disappeared. “They’ve got some sort of power amplifier here,” she said to the approaching privates. “We damaged the main computer and the mechanism disengaged.”
“She’s the reason for the storm.” Private Suarez said, setting up his weapon.
“A victim though,” Florence nodded at the state of the art machines. C20’s operation must’ve cost twice as much as the Andromeda Project. It wasn’t adding up. “Brandt couldn’t be behind all of this alone, he isn’t smart enough.”
Private Coates lit a flare to get a good look at the area and they moved to the watchtower’s south exit.
CAPTAIN JAY BRANDT
Former Middle East, April 2026
Allister walked blindly through the tunnels beneath C20 with the weapon in his back.
“They found two of the gems. Go right,” Brandt said. They turned a corner.
“Why’re you telling me? Isn’t it a conflict of interest or something?”
“You didn’t kill him yet, did you?” his captor asked. Having only rebuilt the muscle tissue but not the layers of skin, Allister’s face was a fearsome sight. Brandt had a hard time gauging his reaction to the question even though silence was a no. “But you want to?” he brightened his tone. In the short amount of time between the family reunion and when Brandt regained control of the situation, something changed. It was still a sensitive subject.
Brandt’s face curled up into a smile as he checked his Cynque watch. The smile faded. “I want you to be part of what we’re doing. Once you join C20, I’ll let you off the hook for it. We can kill him together. I think Patrick would like that.”
Furious, Allister turned around at the name and Brandt pulled the trigger. The blast sent him through a tunnel wall and into another. “You stay here, I’ll go welcome your colleagues.”
Agents armed in C20 advanced combat armor and new weaponry identical to Brandt’s, combed the watchtower wreckage for survivors. Forty flashlights darted over the room until one landed on the Captain hovering over the broken amplification machine. “Repair this first,” he said, searching for its occupant.
The sentient ship had already begun self-repair when the C20 agents attempted to climb aboard. Its console lit up, activating its reverse thrusters and further damaged the ceiling. Assuming someone piloted the vessel, guns raised in defense.
“Don’t shoot,” Brandt said without raising his voice, “it’ll fight back.” Giant cannons located on either side of the wings and its smaller guns underneath the cockpit, aimed at various agents threatening firepower. “One of the few things our enemies did right, a livin’ Air Force,” Brandt said, crediting Russell Ashur for his brilliant engineering. The original prototype didn’t detect enemies, it still needed a lot of work counteracting dangers of computer malfunctions and difficulties in pilot education. It was Earth’s first step toward engaging in extra-planetary war. “We’re always on the same page.”
No time for agents and survivors to escape before the ceiling collapsed without the ship’s support. Awareness of danger activated Brandt’s field, and debris shattered on contact with him as he scrambled to the more stable side of the watchtower. It was over as quickly as an earthquake. The remaining agents watched the ship fade into the distance. At least two day’s worth of repairs on the exterior alone.
“It didn’t fly here by itself.” Brandt stood with his hands on his hips, “Where are they?”
“Someone’s out there Captain,” one of the agents said, pointing his flashlight at the sand.
LEESA DELEMAR
Former Middle East, April 2026
There couldn’t be a more defining moment than to stand in front of the thing that haunted Leesa the most during her career at the Andromeda Project. Did victory always taste as bland as unseasoned food? She thought. Their top goals were close to being accomplished and all she cared about was Allister’s wellbeing.
Leesa remembered her last attempted C20 rendezvous. Suspicion of discovery drove her to locate her main spy and pull him from behind enemy lines. They tracked the secret operative to outside of Shanghai. At the time she held more credibility and gathered a small team of human soldiers to join the mission. By the time they reached the area, the C20 setup was vacant. It’d been packed up and moved as if no one was ever there.
They had entered the empty warehouse, alert for traces of inhabitants. In an ambush similar to the most recent attack, C20 agents in stealth uniforms took out her soldiers before they fired a bullet or slashed a sword. It was supposed to be a rescue not a bloodbath. Zero data, no strategy. The robot turned off. Everything turned off and the lieutenant was helpless. Leesa learned never to take superhuman powers for granted, they malfunctioned too. When the tortured, mutilated, and half alive soldier from the Andromeda Project was lowered by a ship’s anchor, her emotions got the best of her. Something unreal swelled inside and in a few seconds everything within half a mile radius was disintegrated.
Leesa shook her head, wiping sand off as a hot breeze blew through tangled strands of hair. She hated defeat. If her emotions for Allister were as strong as she believed, a similar incident was possible. If.
A scarcely concealed door to the underground tunnels interrupted her subsonic travel. Flashlight beams from the tower washed over her fallen body like a Hollywood premiere as a hatch in the ground opened. The double-barrel cannon rose out of it and moved to target her once above the silo. Sand swirled away from the secret entrance at her command.
The whirring noise of the cannon’s charge became deafening as she yanked upwards on the handle. Bolt locked from the underground side. She faced the attack, hair blowing upwards as sand gathered itself into a solid wall. The cannon fired, demolishing the safeguard but Leesa was nowhere to be found. A spinning metal lid bounced off the base of the cannon, having been propelled by her power. She staggered away from the entrance and broke into a run at the sound of the weapon charging again, it fired abruptly. The tunnel ceiling caved, burying Leesa alive.
C20 SECRET HQ
Former Middle East, April 2026
Smoke rose from Allister’s hands but the rest of his body was void of injury. Either there was little damage or he’d been out longer than expected. He ninja jumped to his feet and returned to the open tunnel. Knowledge of the underground maze pumped through his brain like blood; he paused to listen.
“We found the intruder,” the young agent spoke into the COM system. A wind blaster moved the sand away, revealing Leesa’s crumpled body underneath.
“I don’t believe my eyes,” Brandt said. Having the two most powerful creatures on Earth within reach was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. “Bring her upstairs to the—”
“Don’t touch her,” Allister stepped behind the barrage of agents and adopted a combat position. Leesa opened her eyes as if in response to his voice. Without conscious control, the ceiling above them erupted away creating more open air above the tunnels; moonlight poured in as chunks of earth were flung aside by telekinetic repulsion. Leesa lifted into the sky.
“Checkmate,” Florence said, with the point of her sword in Brandt’s back. “Hands up, Captain.” Private Suarez removed the arm gun and frisked him. “One move from any of you and I drive it right through his spine.” His minions were unsure of what to do. Allister and Brandt’s eyes met, the invisible field pulsed with protection.
“Stand down,” Brandt commanded. “Nice to see you again too, Doctor.”
Gusts of sand invaded the tiny space from overhead reducing visibility to human and superhuman shadows. Brandt ducked away at the commotion. Florence, suddenly surrounded, was coaxed into battle. A single sword’s swipe ripped open an agent’s midsection, he tumbled away spilling blood and guts. She blocked and dodged more assaults while trying to pick up where Brandt snuck off to.
Leesa regained her senses and focused her tactics on threats above the surface. The ground rumbled, opening of silos beneath the desert, defense cannons emerged combat-ready. Allister mi
ssed their blasts at close to sonic speed then leapt into the air, crushing one. It exploded as he flipped over himself to secure a safe landing on the sand. He watched Leesa manually deflect their firepower. Less like attacking and more like stalling, but either way, she was distracted. The perfect time for him to go back to his original mission.
As Allister prepared to speed away, one of the cannons aimed at her. The lieutenant’s cape flew to her side among swirls of loose sand, black hair parallel to it. It was captivating. “Leesa!” he yelled, hating that he cared.
A loud battlefield wasn’t the place for shouting warnings, protection required physical sacrifice. Allister took the blast with his hands out, then landed under her. Leesa recoiled slightly in anticipation of the impact. Another moved its barrel to Allister’s standing position. With a telekinetic lifting motion, wires separated from their computers, causing both canons to rise out of respective silos and smash together, detonating in a loud kaboom.
Florence leapt over one agent’s shoulders and kicked another in the face. Her feet planted on the ground then she back-flipped to avoid a blast. She grabbed an agent from behind to take her place in the line of fire; he was killed instantly and she tossed the body aside. Florence’s sword was sheathed after she rushed forward, slicing across the front of the firing weapon. Its barrel slid off and exploded onto the last agent.
“Behind you!” Private Suarez said, shooting a new threat. Brandt casually walked into the chaos of the lit tunnel and shot her rescuer, he sank in bloody death. Florence tumbled to avoid the captain’s second blast and deflected a third with her sword. She noticed a small device in his hand.
Above ground, the last cannon crumbled into its silo. Allister emerged from the smoke after smashing through it. A second time he resolved to return to the tunnels but Leesa landed, no longer able to contain her field’s absorption of C20 firepower. She sank to her knees. Allister reached her side to help as she curled over, clutching herself.
“Allister, take cover,” she said through strained vocals. It was then he noticed the intensity, like a star going into supernova. She was too hot to touch. “It’s happening…again…”
“Leesa, what’s happening again?”
She shook her head trembling. Allister jumped into the open earth. “Get down!” His warning was for anyone conscious to listen. “Get down!”
Tsunami sized waves of mixed energy, part from within her and part from the plasma weapons, smashed into recovering C20 forces then blew out all of the base’s windows. The force of the second, disintegrated ruins and flattened sand dunes for miles. Dust settled as Allister’s hands pressed against the wall, protecting Florence and Private Coates. Brandt was gone and any remaining agents were unconscious or dead. Leesa passed out.
“What are you doing here?” Allister asked.
Florence moved into the open corridor, her Cynque watch had no connection. They were stranded. “Part of this mission was to rescue your mother without the whole base knowing we were here. I can’t blame your impatience but this plan needs reworking or us mortals won’t make it out alive.” She picked up Brandt’s mental signature in the adjacent tunnel.
Allister felt guilty about his reckless behavior but not guilty enough to apologize, a more important thought crossed his mind. “I don’t think she wants to be saved.”
“It doesn’t mean I can’t try but I’ll need to track down Brandt to do so; make sure Lieutenant Delemar is safe.” She instructed politely. Sand crunched beneath her heavy boots as she jogged away.
Brandt flashed a light behind him as he reached a fork in the tunnels. Heading to Dolores’s prison for no reason, other than to entertain the idea of dying alongside her. The Savior couldn’t kill her if he was in the prison too. No one followed him. Before entering the next pathway, a deadly blade pressed to his heart. Florence’s psychic cloaking went off and she shimmered into view. “Where’s Dolores?” she asked.
“Why do you care?” Brandt replied, then laughed fearlessly. “Ah, I get it. You think if you save Dolores, somehow stealing the gems is forgivable.” He relished in her astonishment. “I read your transcripts. You get those gems over my dead body.”
She bent her arm so the sword didn’t penetrate as she moved toward him. “Don’t be so dramatic.” Probing his mind proved difficult, but she managed to acquire the prison’s location.
“Everybody’s got a boss, Doctor, even you,” Brandt resorted to mind games, realizing she was too powerful to stop.
“I can’t wait to meet yours,” Florence mocked. No time to get the gem’s location too, there were only fifteen minutes left on the bomb. But if Brandt escaped, she would miss the chance to end her servitude.
“Hopefully you can get ‘em both done,” he interrupted her contemplation.
The captain no longer moved; his entire body glowed in the same red outline as her palm. She closed the fist, mental paralysis had to hold long enough for her to get to Dolores and back.
Allister descended the makeshift stair formation with Leesa cradled in his arms. Private Coates followed like a puppy.
“What are you doing?” Leesa slipped into consciousness as they entered the tunnel. “You have to save…your mother. Dr. Belladonna…she is after gems…too…” she trailed off and went unconscious again.
“I knew this wasn’t about me.” Allister set her down on the rocks. “Watch her and if you see anything, shoot it.”
Private Coates nodded, glancing down at Leesa who slept restlessly. When he looked back up Allister was gone.
ALLISTER ADAMS
Former Middle East, April 2026
Allister didn’t believe Florence would rescue his mother without an ulterior motive. He took a shortcut to reach the dungeons faster and traversed an unfamiliar passage. The path’s natural Earth stones; quartz, emerald, sapphires and onyx, reflected off strings of tiny Christmas lights nailed to the ceiling.
An abandoned underground facility wasn’t what he expected to find. Lit monitors on cheap wooden desks filled a ghostly office, whatever had been happening there ended abruptly. The massive drill bit descended into a hole some 100 to 150 feet deep. With no operator, it sat like a constructed dinosaur fossil in the middle of the open room. Allister slid down the man-made cylindrical opening and planted his feet against the head of the drill, which covered the entrance to the depth it had reached. He squeezed through to the other side.
An unsettling feeling accompanied putrid odors of exposed human flesh. His eyes adjusted to the floor littered with dismembered bodies of scientists and workers. “What the fuck?” echoed throughout the space. Allister stepped in human blood while avoiding the remains of the deceased, once he finally looked up, he nearly fell onto the graveyard.
Radiant white light from two clear crystals led him to the opening of a hollow room. “No way,” he mumbled, looking closely at a drawing of a fearsome creature with sharp claws, a gargoyle’s head and a snake’s body. Transus, the famed guardian of the transporter gems. A ruthless beast made of diamonds with teleportation, regeneration and thought-rendered paralysis. Temporal energy emitted from the gems revealed the stories etched in ancient rock, and curiosity became confidence as he traveled around the edge of the cavern.
Allister was in the Cavern of Transports, the mystical location where the transporter gems were hidden hundreds of thousands of years ago. Its ceiling was open but instead of the night sky, galactic matter, millions of stars and nebulae occupied his vision. He turned back to the entrance; it no longer existed.
Sweat dripped from his forehead after multiple attempts to smash through rock, not a dent or a crack. A shadow passed behind him and the transporter gem’s light flickered then dimmed.
“Hello!” Allister yelled.
Unfamiliar breathing raised goosebumps all over his body.
“You have broken the seal of the Cavern of Transports,” Transus, a twenty foot tall, living version of the image, warned. Its forked tongue flicked through two sharp fangs. “You will die as
your companions have, mortal.” Four horns of similar shape to an earth Ram but twice the size, extended around the sides of its head. The snarling creature’s eyes turned white like the energy of the gems. Allister froze, defenseless, and Transus raised its jagged diamond claws to strike.
CAVERN OF TRANSPORTS
“The Evale is an unquenchable cold you can never understand.” Transus the guardian slithered in circles, watching Allister bleed profusely after a fatal slice across the chest. The creature’s mental paralysis halted all bodily function, including regeneration.
“It is all about balance, Transus.” Neight’s body manifested in a cloud of violet smoke shortly after his voice.
Transus moved sharply to confront him. “Ah…the Neight Caster. I felt you on this planet. You seek to escape. To return to what you knew.”
“The boy must live, his, our lineage is essential.” He evaporated and appeared between the demon and Allister.
“Judge Xor will have you exiled permanently if you bring any more danger to the cluster. Self-preservation is not an acceptable excuse.” Transus was older than the Uragonian king by more than a few millennia. What Neight wanted was possible but impractical. He’d been banished from Sector 2 of the Cluster where his home world once thrived. No going back without an invitation or a pardon from the Alliance. The same didn’t hold true for the genetically enhanced superhuman, Allister. More of the future revealed itself clarifying Neight’s motivation. Allister wasn’t meant to help him obtain the gems, he was meant to wield them. Earth needed them more and it’d still work in the uragonian’s favor.
“The Evale’s power grows with each second. And you seek to use the universe’s only protection as a call for assistance. Your family is no longer…there is nothing…for you.” Transus’ accusations struck a sore spot, escalating the confrontation.
The Andromeda Project (The Cluster Chronicles Book 1) Page 23