A Plague of Dragons (A Dragon Anthology)

by Jason LaVelle

  [SYSTEM UPDATE: Armor Reinforcement upgrade installed.]

  [SYSTEM UPDATE: Reinforced Armor repaired.]

  My suit takes on its original sage green appearance. That’s a relief.

  I shift my focus to the Weather Controller Unit.

  “I’m at the Weather Controller. I’m going to take it out.”

  “Wow. You work fast,” says Mukki.

  I move to the back of the unit. There is a thick metal plate protecting the access panel. I fire at it, but my shots ricochet. They hit the wall behind me and explode.

  I move closer to the unit and disable my cannons, then pull at the corners of the heavy plating. It’s locked tight. I punch the center of the metal. Not even a dent.

  Frustrated, I return to the locked door and shoot it. No response. I’m trapped. I’ll need some sort of battering ram to—

  Wait. Throwing the weight of my armor around using the stabilizers should definitely cause some damage.

  I go back to the Weather Controller and get a running start, then dash forward and shoulder charge the plating. It completely smashes in with a satisfying crunch.

  I tear back the plate and toss it to the side.

  Within the complex array of colored cables and plugs, I find the emergency control panel. I max out all of the unit’s settings, and hear the machine struggling to maintain stability. Bolts of electricity break out all over the unit as I jump away. The room crackles loudly with the energy the machine is pulling to remain active.

  I hurry back to the locked door and wonder if I can use the same technique on it. If so, I’ll likely have very little time to scramble past the juggernaut bird.

  I race toward the circular door at full speed and activate the stabilizers. The door smashes apart and I sprint through the room, toward the wall. The bird is back at its nest. I jump at the wall, kick off, and jump again until I reach the top. The bird lunges for me as I land, and I barely stay clear of its massive beak clamping down at me by dashing away as I rush down the door.

  Stopping at the top of the mountain, I see that the Desert Sanctuary’s façade is wrecked. The blue sky is replaced by a giant black screen displaying the word ‘Error’ in green letters. The winds are fierce, and it’s pouring rain. I’ll need to avoid the ground as much as possible.

  “The Weather Controller’s down. The desert’s going crazy,” I say.

  “We need to leave the area,” Nova says, over the sounds of the storm.

  “On my way now,” I say.

  “Be careful, Ilana. It’s too dangerous to fly in this. I’m sorry, but you’ll need to get back on your own,” she says.

  “I can handle it.”

  I run and dash off the cliff as the wind and rain swarm around me. Visibility is extremely limited, and I use my second jump as I near the ground. The second jump propels me far across the landscape. I hit the ground running, and continuously dash and jump across the storm-ridden area. Lightning strikes the ground repeatedly, so I stay as close to the rock formations as possible.

  It’s incredibly difficult to navigate, and I can hardly hear myself think. The winds are constantly shifting, forcing me to recalculate my jumps on the fly and pause against the rocks to avoid being blown away.

  I finally make it back to the beginning and fire at the door. I head through, and all the chaos is shuttered as the door closes behind me. I drop to my knees, completely out of breath, soaked, and covered in mud. Nova is waiting in the carpeted hallway. Drops of water fall from the bottom tips of her wings and armor.

  “Welcome back,” she says. “Your armor is back to green. That’s a good sign.”

  “Did you…manage to get the…data?” I ask breathlessly.

  “Mukki’s still in the field,” Nova replies. “He’ll catch up once he retrieves it.”

  I take a few minutes to recover. “What’s our next move?” I ask, getting to my feet.

  “You and I are heading to the next habitat. Skah’s holding down the lobby. Follow me.”

  We walk through the lab’s Nav Room into the lobby, where we meet up with Skah. He walks with us.

  “Good work in there, Ilana. I had my doubts, but you’re everything the elders promised.”

  “Thank you,” I say. “How are things around here?”

  “Quiet. Except for him,” Skah says. “Found him lurking on the balcony.”

  Skah takes us to a bespectacled middle-aged man with ashen black hair in a lab coat. He’s zip-tied to a lamp post.

  “Aside from the soldiers, most of the humans fled the facility when we arrived. He’s a straggler.”

  The man looks at us. “Why are you doing this? Let me go!”

  “This is Doctor Nathan Jure,” Skah explains. “He’s the senior genetic engineer here. I figured if anyone knows vital information about the hybrids and the facility, it’s him.”

  “That’s a lucky find,” Nova says.

  “Listen to me. These creatures can’t be allowed out into the world. They’re bioweapons,” the man says.

  “We know. We’re taking care of them, and this facility,” Nova says.

  “You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”

  “And that’s where you come in,” Skah says, moving to face the doctor. “You can either help us, or join your friends.” Skah gestures to the bodies strewn about the lobby.

  Dr. Jure looks horrified. Skah picks up one of the couches and sets it down facing the doctor. He sits.

  “You two go ahead. The doctor and I are going to have a nice, long chat.”

  I’m about to speak out against Skah’s tactics, but Nova grabs my shoulder and shakes her head at me. I follow her away from the situation.

  Nova and I get into the lift. She inputs the command for Underground 2. The heavy doors close, and we begin our descent.

  “Where are we headed?” I ask.

  “The Arctic Chamber.”

  “Cool,” I say. “This should go much faster with backup.”

  “Definitely. Sorry I couldn’t reach you earlier.”

  “No problem. I handled it.”

  “And praise from Skah? Wow. That’s rare,” says Nova.

  I don’t say anything to Nova, but something about Skah’s methods with the doctor bother me.

  ***

  The metal doors open to Underground 2. Nova and I walk out into an active, recently vacated lab.

  “Kinda creepy when it’s all empty and quiet,” Nova observes.

  “I try not to focus on it too much. You start to see things out of the corner of your eye, and hear things that aren’t there.”

  As we cross the room, I see a hot mug of coffee on a desk. We move to the door in the left corner of the room and I shoot it open. Nova ducks her head as we walk into the next room. It’s a dimly lit passageway with stacks of material covered by tarps set off to the sides. We follow the room deeper underground and come to another door. I shoot it open and find a carpeted hallway. As I step onto the carpet, I notice the room is significantly colder.

  “We’re here,” I say.

  I shoot open the door at the far end of the room. A blast of icy air hits us.

  [WARNING: Extreme temperatures detected. Climate Systems are disabled.]

  “There's no way the suit can withstand these temperatures. I'll have to come back once I get the Climate Systems back online,” I say.

  “We can’t wait for that. What were you expecting?”

  “Hmm. I’ll try it. If I keep moving, the suit should stay warm enough to operate.”

  “Don’t worry. If it gets too bad, we’ll back out and thaw you out,” Nova says. “Deal?”

  “Deal.”

  We head inside the Arctic Chamber and find ourselves standing at the top of a high-ceiling, narrow icy tunnel with hundreds of icicles overhead. The tunnel slopes down and curves to the left. We can’t see around the corner, so we move forward cautiously. Nova and I peek around the bend and see another curve in the path. We follow it, wrapping around to the right, and spot a wal
l of ice at the end of a long corridor.

  “There’s light coming from the other side,” I say.

  “Looks like it leads outside,” Nova says.

  “It’s a trick. The Weather Controller does a convincing job of creating an environment that looks real.”

  When we’re about ten feet away, I blast the thick wall. My shots punch through the ice and cause residual melting. The upper wall collapses and drops to the ground, shattering in every direction. Nova and I rush into the next area as dozens of icicles fall all around us.

  The first thing I observe is a door straight ahead, a short distance inside of a snowy tunnel. To my right, the Arctic Chamber opens before us. A mountainous field blanketed in snow, dotted with numerous caves and shelters for the hybrids, sits far beneath us. High within the hills, near ledges overlooking the area, are even more hybrid dwellings. In the distance, I can see a large body of water with ice floes. The walls of the habitat are made up of vertical ice that extends to the ceiling, obscuring my view of the remaining landscape.

  “Wow. Humans built all of this? I’m impressed,” Nova says.

  I move toward the door and shoot it. It’s the Arctic Chamber’s Nav Room. I step inside the warm room and take notice of the heating ducts that prevent the system from freezing over.

  I approach the terminal, activate it, and input the commands for the map data. The equipment emits a low hum as the data processes. The computer chimes when the download is complete. My suit receives the data, and I pass it on to my squad.

  “Mukki, we scouted the path to the Nav Room. It’s clear, but watch out for falling icicles,” I say over the comm.

  “Thanks. That was fast,” Mukki says.

  “It’s just inside the habitat. You can’t miss it.”

  I head back outside.

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  The door closes as I walk away from it. “Okay, let’s move,” I say to Nova.

  “I can carry you through the area.”

  “Thank you, but that will cause my temperature to drop.”

  “That’s right. Good thinking. I’ll cover you from the air. Ready?”

  “Ready.”

  Nova and I take a few steps back. We both run and I dash off the high platform as she takes to the sky.

  I launch far into the habitat, and time my second jump to propel me even farther. I make a small crater in the packed snow, and take off toward the lake. I’m eager to see the rest of the area.

  I see movement on the edges of my radar in three separate directions.

  “They see us,” Nova says over the comm, soaring above me.

  “They’re closing in fast. What are they?”

  “Polar tibbits. I don’t know if I’ll reach them all in time. Be careful,” Nova says.

  Polar tibbits are a mix of Siberian tiger and polar rabbits. They’re white tigers with slightly longer ears and thinner frames. They exude all the raw power and ferocity of a tiger, with the speed and endurance of a polar rabbit.

  There are a half dozen tibbits hunting me. Two are coming from my left, another pair from the right, and the final pair are closing in from behind.

  Nova fires homing missiles at the tibbits to my left. One of them yelps and goes down. I shoot at the ground to my right, causing several explosions, but not much else. I’m getting close to the edge of the water. Nova swoops in and roasts the tibbits at my back. Their red dots disappear from my radar.

  The three remaining tibbits are rushing me down. They take a running leap at me, reaching out with their claws. I take a running leap at them, then scorch one in the face with my stabilizers as I double jump over it.

  My momentum takes me too far, and I end up just deep enough in the water to slow me down. The tibbits recover and start racing toward me again. I take a few steps back, then dash forward, leap, and jump again mid-air, landing clumsily on an ice floe as the tibbits crash into the freezing water.

  For a moment, I’m relieved, but I hear the ice cracking beneath my feet, and before I can even move, I plunge into the freezing water.

  My armor causes me to sink to the bottom of the lake quickly. All of the air is sucked from my lungs as the water leeches my warmth.

  [WARNING: Extreme temperatures detected. Climate Systems are disabled.]

  I’m scrambling to make my way back to land, but I can’t move fast enough. I’m using the stabilizers to jet through the icy water.

  [WARNING: Critical damage sustained.]

  [DANGER: Life Support Systems critical.]

  I know the tibbits are waiting for me on the shore, but I have to make it back. My stabilizers freeze up, and it’s getting harder to move. It’s so cold. I can’t breathe.

  [SYSTEM UPDATE: System shutdown imminent.]

  I’m still so far away. The world is….

  I can’t move. Something grabs me tight.

  I break the surface of the water and I’m flying. I’m still freezing, but I can slightly breathe again. The world comes back into focus, but I can only watch.

  I’m dropped on the ground in an unfamiliar place. Where am I?

  I see Ociel legs. I see Nova’s face. It’s real close.

  “Ilana? Ilana!”

  My words come out between constricted breaths.

  “Nova. Help. I can’t move. It’s so cold.”

  Nova rears back, opens her mouth, and breathes fire on me.

  The heat feels nice. I can feel everything loosening up. My suit is still going crazy. I disable my cannons, slide my hands forward, and push myself up to my knees. My breathing eases.

  [DANGER: Low energy. Matter required.]

  [DANGER: System shutdown imminent.]

  “Are you okay?” Nova asks.

  “You were just in time,” I say. “But the suit needs energy really bad.”

  I activate my cannons and fire at whatever creatures are swimming in the water. The shots convert the water and fish to energy, and the Aether Suit absorbs it greedily. My suit and its functions return to normal.

  With some difficulty, I stand up and look around. We’re on a small landmass against the side of the habitat. It’s where we would have ended up, had I not fallen in the water. I follow the ice floes back to the tibbits at the shoreline to the left, and see the way ahead off to the right.

  “Well, that was frightening,” I say.

  “I’m just glad I made it in time. Are you good?”

  “Yes. Let’s press on.”

  There are a group of ice floes leading to the next section. Nova grabs me and carries me across the water. She sets me down on the solid ground.

  “Sorry. Wasn’t chancing it,” she says.

  “Thanks.”

  [ALERT: Suit components detected.]

  “Hang on,” I say.

  A waypoint appears in the water behind us.

  “Nova, a suit component just showed up on my sensors. It’s in the water.”

  “Can you mark the location?”

  “Sure.” I tag the location and send it to Nova.

  “Be right back.”

  Nova leaps high into the air, flies to the spot, and dives. She resurfaces carrying a strange creature corpse.

  “Is this what you wanted?” she asks, offering me the plump little creature. It’s the size and color of a loaf of bread. The creature has four pairs of legs, each with tiny claws on them.

  The suit highlights the creature, tagging it with the name Magna Aqua Ursa.

  “The suit seems to think so. Can you please set it down?”

  Nova sets the creature corpse in the snow. I take aim and shoot at it repeatedly. It bursts into light blue data fragments that cover the entire suit. The suit finishes absorbing the data, and I receive a notification.

  [SYSTEM UPDATE: Climate Systems upgrade installed.]

  [SYSTEM UPDATE: Climate Systems repaired.]

  “Uh, Ilana…what just happened?” Nova asks, staring at me strangely.

  “Unbelievable. That little creature just fixed my
suit’s Climate System.”

  As I speak, the suit starts adjusting to the icy environment.

  “That’s amazing, but how?”

  “I have no idea. I’ll have to look into it later.”

  We shift our focus to the path ahead. It’s a staggering uphill climb among enormous crystalline glaciers. They’re absolutely breathtaking.

  “Nope,” I say.

  Nova approaches me.

  “Hang on tight,” she says, flapping her wings. We lift high into the air, flying over and between the icy structures, until we reach the top of the hill.

  The terrain flattens out at the top. As we touch down, the only point of interest is a circular lab door. A terrifying roar reverberates from the other side. Nova and I open the door and enter cautiously.

  The only thing inside the room is another lab door, planted in the ground. I shoot it open. Bright blue light emanates from below.

  “No way to go but down,” Nova says.

  I sigh. Another booming roar comes from inside the next room.

  “Do we have to?” I ask.

  I drop into the cave. It’s a long way down. I time my second jump for a soft landing onto a bloodstained, icy pillar. Nova lands beside me a few moments later.

  We’re standing at the center of a massive igloo. Dried blood decorates the walls and floor. I turn around and see an enormous Snowy T-Rex. Short white feathers cover its body, with black stripes along its back. The beast stands at well over forty feet tall. Its arms and claws have been enlarged. The bloody pillar stands at about half of the creature’s height.

  Far below us, I see another lab door. The letters W.C.U. are spray painted on the door.

  “They’re resurrecting dinosaurs?” Nova whispers.

  “Resurrecting and enhancing. Watch for surprises. Keep it busy while I overload the Weather Controller,” I whisper over the comm.