The creature sniffs the air. It turns toward us. The T-Rex opens its gaping maw, revealing jagged rows of yellow teeth. It roars wildly and stomps toward us.
I dash off the pillar toward the door, and the T-Rex starts chasing me. Nova blasts it with homing missiles, and the creature turns its attention to her. It rears back, opens its mouth and shoots a beam of ice at Nova.
“Whoa! You weren’t kidding!” Nova says, leaping into the air.
The beam smashes against the pillar, forming dense layers of ice crystals on anything it touches.
I time my second jump not for distance, but for landing on the solid ice. I hit the ground harder than intended, and begin sliding uncontrollably toward the door.
I fire at the door with my left cannon, miss several shots, then just barely hit the target.
“Behind you!” Nova shouts.
The T-Rex’s ice beam crashes down behind me as I slip into the room containing the Weather Controller. I tumble to the ground inside and roll until I lose momentum. When I glance at the doorway, it’s completely blocked up with thick ice crystals. I get to my feet. This room is warm, like the Nav Room. I disable my cannons and wipe the melting snow from my visor.
“Keep him busy, Nova. I’ll hurry back,” I say over the comm.
I turn my attention to the unit, heading around back and smashing through the thick plating, exposing the unit’s emergency controls. I turn all the settings up, and the unit starts struggling while I wait for it to start breaking apart, but it’s still holding. I look around the room for options.
The heaters. If I shut them down, it might do the trick. But the units aren’t in the room with me.
The best I can do is block the ducts, so I take aim and shoot into the one I’m looking at. The shots destroy the rock above the duct, closing off the warm air from circulation.
I move around the room, shooting and blocking a second duct. I can hear the machine struggling.
A few moments after I close off the third duct, the machine breaks out into crackling electricity. I don’t want the machine to freeze over, so I leave the final duct functional. The room is significantly colder now.
Nova screams over the comm. “I’m hit! Help!”
I rush over to the door and shoot at the ice. The drop in temperature allowed it to grow really thick. My shots bite into the ice, but I’m still a long way from reaching Nova.
“I’m trying to get there. Hang on!” I say.
I hear angry growling and rapid explosions coming from the next room as I continue firing at the ice.
“I’m grounded. The ice is climbing up my legs faster than I can thaw it. It’s coming!” Nova screams over the comm.
I break through the wall and see Nova caught in the T-Rex’s massive jaws. She’s bloody and screaming.
“Nova!” I rush toward the T-Rex as it opens its mouth wide to chomp down on Nova.
“Get back!”
Suddenly Nova and the T-Rex explode in a blinding flash. I’m thrown back into the previous room as the shockwave rocks through the cave. The door closes.
My ears are ringing. I stand up and shoot the door. It doesn’t open.
I rush the door and use a dash to smash through it.
Nova is gone. The T-Rex is gone. The icy pillar is gone. The entire room is scorched black.
I approach the center of the room.
“Ilana, what just happened?!” Mukki says over the comm.
“Nova…she sacrificed herself. There was a monster here, and she took it out. She’s… gone.”
“The Arctic Chamber is destabilizing. Did you overload the Weather Controller?”
“I did. It’s done,” I say.
“You need to get out of there while you still can,” Mukki says. “Nova knew what she was doing. She never does anything on accident.”
I glance up at the high ceiling, and the scorched lab door far above. There’s no way I can reach it.
[ALERT: Suit components detected.]
Here? Now?
The suit points the way to a scorched pile of rubble on the other side of the room. I make my way across the area, afraid of what I’ll find.
I put my cannons away and crouch down, then begin moving large pieces of blackened ice aside. It’s a piece of Nova’s weaponry. It’s far too large and heavy to move, but the shell’s cracked apart, revealing the inner workings of one of her missile systems. The suit highlights the machinery.
I activate my cannons and shoot the hardware. It bursts into light blue data fragments that cover my suit’s shoulders and cannons. The suit finishes absorbing the data, and I receive a notification.
[SYSTEM UPDATE: Advanced Weapon Systems upgrade installed.]
[SYSTEM UPDATE: Advanced Weapon Systems repaired.]
[SYSTEM UPDATE: Charge Shot online.]
[SYSTEM UPDATE: Homing Missiles online.]
“Thank you, Nova.”
The ground starts shaking. I need to get out of here. But how? Even if I managed to get back to the surface, there are way too many hybrids around. I can’t even imagine what it looks like outside.
I look at the map. I’m on the same level as the Nav Room, and it’s actually not that far from here. I might be able to make a tunnel between here and there.
I move to the wall closest to the Nav Room, but keep my distance. I target the wall and fire homing missiles into it while charging both cannons. I alternate firing charge shot after charge shot between the cannons, along with constant missile fire.
The deafening sounds echo around me. My weapons plow through the terrain, with exploding dirt and rock flying in all directions as a constant cloud of dust fills the tunnel. The suit extracts the destroyed matter and converts it into blue weapons energy, which replenishes my homing missiles and powers the charge shots.
I can see that I’m out of the map, and making quick progress. It isn’t long before I fire the last charge shot, breaching the Nav Room. I step through, completely covered in dust and dirt.
Mukki leans over from behind the computer, looking concerned.
“Ilana? What a relief. I was just trying to figure out how to get you out of there.” He walks over to the hole in the wall. “Your plan was much better than mine. I never would have thought of that. Wow.” Mukki approaches me. He puts his hand on my shoulder. “Listen. I know a lot has happened, but I need you to remain strong. I’m very sorry about Nova. She was like a sister to me. When our work here is finished, we’ll put her at peace.”
My wavering resolution shifts. I’m ready to put an end to this.
“The final Weather Controller Unit is in the Ociel Ruins. It’s on Underground 1. I’ll join you as soon as I’m done extracting the data here.”
“Sure. See you there.”
Mukki places a piece of paper in my hand, and motions for me to stay silent. It has three words on it:
Don’t trust Skah.
I look at Mukki and nod. I return the paper, move over to the door, and shoot it open. A massive blizzard is tearing the habitat apart. I move outside and must tread carefully while crossing along the observation area back into the tunnel. The winds and snow are unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and they’re trying to pull me back out there.
I finally manage to get across and head back up the winding icy tunnel. Icicles are raining down on the path. I clear the way by shooting up at the ceiling as I make my way back.
I head back through the area to the lab facility. Skah is waiting for me at the lift.
Damn.
“Two down. One to go,” he says. “I’ll join you.”
“Thanks.”
We step into the lift and he inputs the command for Underground 1. The heavy doors close. We begin our ascent.
What do I do? If I say anything to Skah, it’ll make Mukki look suspicious. But if Skah is the traitor, I don’t want him to know I know.
“Nova was an incredible warrior. We need to make her sacrifice count. Can you fulfill the rest of the mission?” Skah asks.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Mukki and I can carry on without you, if you don’t think you can handle it.”
“I’m going to finish this. For her,” I say.
“Spoken like a true hunter. I’m proud to have you on my team.”
The lift stops and the doors open. It’s dark, musty, and quiet. We’re standing in front of the ruins of an ancient Ociel temple.
A long, decorative stone path with four pairs of glaring dragon statues on either side leads to a flight of stairs. There’s a door of some kind at the top.
“Looks a lot like home, huh?” Skah says, as we move out of the lift and onto the path.
“Yes, if we shut ourselves off from the world for a few millennia. They put a Weather Controller Unit in here somewhere?” I ask.
“That’s what Mukki claims. If it’s here, we’ll find it.”
As we approach the first set of dragons, nearby torch pillars set themselves ablaze.
“Well, this is ominous.”
“Huh. Motion activated,” Skah observes.
Three more pairs of torch pillars activate while we walk the path. We take the stairs up and stop at an unusually placed circular lab door. The power’s flickering.
“Why do humans have to ruin everything?” Skah asks.
I shoot the door. It protests for a few seconds, but its eight dusty segments slide open. We walk into a high hallway lined with tall torch pillars. Many of the torches ignite, but several of them have fallen over and broken. Their remains are scattered along the path.
The door shuts behind us and powers down.
We press forward, stepping around the debris. There’s a reinforced vault door at the far end of the hall.
“Looks like this area was shut down. I wonder why,” I say.
“I’ll bet it has something to do with whatever’s beyond that door.”
Skah approaches the door and knocks. Something on the other side snarls.
“Guess they don’t like visitors. No way we’re getting through that.”
Skah looks at the structure above the door. He leaps up, plants a small explosive device on the wall, and drops back to the ground.
“Target practice. Can you hit that?”
I quickly take aim and fire, blasting a large hole above the vault door. Warm light pours in from the next room. Skah jumps up and stands inside the opening.
“It’s a throne room, and I think I see the king,” Skah says.
Something roars loudly in the next room. Skah drops in and disappears.
I climb up by kicking off the wall and double jumping back at it.
Once I reach the top, I see Skah moving toward a terrifying, behemoth manticore at the center of the room. The creature has the head and body of a lion, a pair of massive bat wings, and a long, barbed tail.
“Skah, what are you doing?” I ask in a measured voice.
The manticore snarls.
“Introducing myself.”
I drop into the room as Skah moves closer to the enraged beast.
What’s your plan, Skah?
The manticore whips its tail, sending large spikes flying toward Skah, who quickly leaps to the side.
I start charging my cannons.
“Come on. Show me what you can do,” Skah says.
I realize we’re standing in a derelict elder council chamber. Off to the left, there’s a raised balcony with a dozen stone seats. Straight ahead, past the manticore and up a flight of stairs, is another lab door.
The manticore starts moving toward Skah, baring its teeth. It leaps at him. Skah takes to the air as the manticore lands and turns its attention to me.
I fire my cannons, but the manticore bounds high into the air and goes after Skah. My shots destroy one of the torch pillars at the far end of the room.
Skah shoots streams of fire as he and the manticore pursue each other high in the chamber. I want to target the creature, but they’re moving so fast I might hit Skah by mistake. I move to the center of the room.
They swoop down and I fire at the manticore as it passes. A few shots land, but it’s not enough to bring it down.
At the next apex, Skah spins around and blasts homing missiles at the manticore. The creature survives the shots and digs into Skah with its massive claws. The manticore starts dragging Skah to the ground. He cries out as the creature lands on the high balcony.
I disable my cannons and rush toward the balcony. I just have enough height in my jumps to reach the ledge. I pull myself up and target the creature with homing missiles, then activate my cannons and start charging them.
The manticore roars at me. One of its eyes is closed and bleeding, and its body is singed and ashen. It whips its tail, and a large spike stabs into my chest.
I fire homing missiles as the creature leaps into the air. Multiple explosions erupt on the manticore’s body, and it crashes down on the ancient stone chairs. The creature roars one last time as I fire both charge shots into it. The manticore’s body splits apart.
I disable my cannons and rip the spike from my suit. A massive pile of floating yellow and blue energy appears. The suit draws it in.
“That was close,” I say.
Skah sits up. “No kidding. Thanks for the help. Let’s keep going.”
“You realize that thing was about to kill you, right?”
He reaches back and removes a bloody spike from his shoulder.
“It got closer than I intended.”
We jump from the balcony and approach the door to the next room. I switch to my cannon and shoot it open. We enter the area’s Nav Room, which is surprisingly humid. I approach the dusty terminal.
“No power. Can’t say I’m surprised.”
“The fact that it’s here at all tells me there has to be a way to switch it on,” Skah says.
The door we came in through closes and powers down.
“Agreed. Hopefully everything’s still functional. Might give us a chance to find out what happened here.”
A strange sound coming from the next room catches my ear.
“Do you hear that?”
“Sounds like water,” Skah says.
We approach the door and I shoot it open.
A beautiful, overgrown tropical rainforest unfolds before us. A wave of humidity hits me as I look around at the dense jungle-scape. The area is incredibly noisy, with the constant sounds of birds, insects, and other wildlife filling the air. I hear a waterfall in the distance.
“Well, at least we know the Weather Controller is working,” Skah says.
Rain falls softly from somewhere above us, and when I look up at the top of the environment, I see a large opening in the ceiling.
“That might lead somewhere,” I say.
“I’ll investigate up there. See what you can find around here,” Skah says.
He takes off before I have a chance to respond.
“Let me know if you run into trouble,” Skah says over the comm.
Much as I’d love to take the time and explore this place, I need to hurry.
I dash through the grass and mud while weaving between the trees. If there’s anything in here, I want to make sure it sees me.
I’m scouting the area by double jumping to see as far ahead as possible. I can see another lab door beside the waterfall, and rush toward it.
My radar’s lighting up to my right, and there’s something in the water to my left. I ignore them, and shoot the door open once I have a clear shot.
A long stone staircase leads far below. I follow it to a door at the bottom, and enter.
I’m standing in a confined space with a pair of torch pillars sitting beside a dragon statue to the left of the entrance, in the center of the room. There’s another door ahead, across the room. I get about halfway to it, when the lights go out. The doors power down, and it’s pitch black.
Everything is silent except for my breathing. I check my motion sensor. A big red dot appears on my radar as two bright gold eyes appear in the darkness.
My visor adapts to the darkness, and I can see the dragon statue coming to life. I switch to my cannons and watch the dragon’s stone skin crumble away, revealing a metal dragon twice my height. It screeches as it leaps to the center of the area, walking on all four of its metal legs. The torch pillars reactivate weakly.
I start shooting at the creature with one cannon as I charge the other. My shots bounce off its metal shell.
The dragon runs at me and slashes. I dash backward to avoid being hit. It shoots two massive fireballs at me, and I double jump over them as I fire a charge shot at its open mouth.
The dragon slides back from the impact. Its mouth starts to glow. I target its mouth with homing missiles.
Its mouth opens again. I jump into the air and unleash a volley of homing missiles. At the same time, the dragon fires a burning hot beam of energy that hits me square in the chest. It blasts me backwards against the wall, but the homing missiles land.
The suit and dragon take heavy damage. I drop to the ground and charge my cannons. The dragon’s beam has stopped firing, but it continues to burn the suit.
The dragon rushes me. I double jump over it and fire two charge shots straight down at its metal body as I pass by, clipping its wings and shattering a big chunk of its shell.
I hit the ground hard. The dragon has trouble turning around. Its mouth starts to glow.
I lock on and dash to the side as the dragon fires its beam again. I shoot another volley of homing missiles into its mouth as the beam tracks me, scorching the ground. The first few missiles explode on the dragon’s head, causing the beam to fire randomly around the room. As the remaining missiles hit their target, the beam stops and the dragon’s metal head is blasted away. The metal dragon powers down and detonates in a series of large explosions.
The torch pillars fully ignite and the door lights reactivate. The room is filled with scattered pieces of scrap. A large quantity of floating yellow and blue energy appear where the dragon exploded. I resupply.
[ALERT: Suit components detected.]
A Plague of Dragons (A Dragon Anthology) Page 43