by Paul Centeno
“Commander!” he shouted. “Commander Jeyphen! Mardein fell into a trap.” He panted, trying to catch his breath. “I think...I think he’s dead.”
“Calm down, Geirdi,” the commander said firmly. “Explain the situation.”
After taking a few deep breaths, the miner continued, “My colleagues and I managed to dig our way to what we believe is the pyramid’s entrance. As soon as we cleared a path, Mardein and the other archeologists insisted on trying to unlock the door despite Khal’s warning. They kept fiddling with a strange panel until Mardein triggered some kind of trapdoor. I’m certain he fell to his death.”
“Did it ever occur to you that perhaps all your digging caused the ground beneath him to collapse, creating a sinkhole?”
The miner scratched his head. “I guess so. But that’s too much of a coincidence.”
“All right, that’s it,” Commander Jeyphen said, grunting. “Shirakaya, you stay here until I sort this out. Sergeant Haekin and Private Bavad, you’re with me.”
“Yes, sir,” they said in unison, following their commanding officer.
Yarasuro shook his head. “I can’t help feel that we’ve experienced this before. What do you think?”
“I know what you mean,” Shirakaya said. “But this is a bit different. We know where we are, and we’re not surrounded by a legion of machines ruled by a dictator. Still, my brother could be in danger.” She activated her KLD, speaking into it. “Narja, inform Rah’tera and Myris that they’re needed here.”
“Right away.”
The duo waited for their comrades. Once the assassin and oracle joined them, Shirakaya explained the situation. During that time, Xeza had poked her head out of Myris’ pocket, looked around, and hid back inside it again as though afraid.
“Bonkers,” the oracle said.
Rah’tera glimpsed Myris with intrigue and then focused on the upside-down pyramid. “It seems we’ll need to be stealthy if we’re to get inside.”
“I suppose,” Shirakaya responded, focused on the oracle’s jiggling pocket. “By the way, I’m not sure this is a safe place for Xeza.”
Myris pouted, using her divination to teleport the sìsô inside Marauder.
“It’s for her own good,” Shirakaya said. “So, should we be concerned? Are you able to sense any threats?”
“Not yet,” the oracle replied. “It was crazy difficult just trying to find this place. I’ve gotta say, it’s pretty dope here. Your brother must be fun,”—Her comment made Shirakaya shrug—“I can’t wait to meet him!”
“First we need to find him,” Yarasuro said.
The assassin snorted behind his gasmask. “Leave it to me. With my cloaking device, I can sneak past all the guards and locate him.”
“Hmmm,” muttered Shirakaya. “Not a bad idea.” She paused, thinking it over. “All right, we’ll stay here and pretend we’re following Commander Jeyphen’s orders while you act as our eyes and ears. Just be careful.”
Rah’tera gave a slight nod, returning to his ship for show. Upon entering, he cloaked himself and disembarked the Marauder again. This time, he strode past the others and made his way toward the manmade cavern. Careful not to make any noise, Rah’tera waited for a patrol squad to walk away before climbing up a crag. Reaching the top, he entered the dry cave and remained in the shadows.
The walls and ground inside were cylindrical, as if someone or something had drilled between them. Since it was an excavation site, this made perfect sense to Rah’tera. The upside-down pyramid that lay ahead somewhere, however, made no sense to him. As he pressed on, military soldiers approached. He stopped and leaned against a wall until they passed him. Once they moved out of the way, he continued forward.
Turning at a corner, Rah’tera allowed the artificial lights embedded along the jagged ceiling to guide his way. The path ahead curved and had several twists. He followed the eerie passage, careful not to make noise with his footsteps or draw attention to himself while advancing between the miners. For a moment, one of them glanced at a rock that moved out of place for what seemed to be no reason. Not seeing anything else out of the ordinary, he simply returned to work.
Carefully releasing his sabaton from the crushed stone, Rah’tera progressed. He soon found himself at an intersection containing two paths. One led up like a ramp while the other plummeted downward into the gloom. The sandstalker chose the latter, descending it as quietly as possible. When he was midway through the tunnel, a military patrol of three appeared, making their way toward him.
With little time to do much else, the assassin jumped and dug his plasma daggers into the rocky ceiling. The trio heard a crunching sound and noticed grains falling from the ceiling as the assassin lifted himself up. They halted, flashing their lights upward. One of the soldiers extended his hand as if to touch the air when he was interrupted by a slight tremor.
“Those damn miners are at it again,” said another soldier in the group.
The other soldier pulled away just before touching Rah’tera’s invisible garb. “I thought the commander told them to stop.”
“Let’s go before they cause these tunnels to collapse,” the third soldier said.
A wicked smirk on his face, Rah’tera watched the trio leave and then released his daggers from the carved ceiling. Returning to the ground, he strode down the path. At its end, he spotted a group of archeologists and soldiers. Sure enough, beyond the group—partially hidden within the wall—stood a sealed entrance to the mysterious structure.
“Please listen to reason, Commander,” Khal’jan said. “We have no idea what lies inside this temple. It could be filled with deadly traps or worse...it could be cursed.”
The commander waved a hand in defiance. “This is not a debate. I will not stand idle while someone from this research division is in danger. Show the sergeant and private that symbol your colleague used in order to trigger the trapdoor.”
Khal’jan grimaced, shaking his head. He approached the panel embedded within the glassy wall and swirled a finger in its sandbox-like console. Strangely, the grains didn’t float away. He formed several curving lines and linked them together; the pictogram resembled a disfigured, stick-shaped star.
Before he could adjust its appearance, a tremor started. Khal’jan and his company held their ground as a trapdoor opened. The sergeant and private immediately activated their jet packs, descending into the pitch-black hole with Khal’jan despite his resistance. The remaining five archeologists gazed down, their mouths agape. Even though they beamed their flashlights below, none of them could see a thing.
“Keep me apprised, soldiers,” the commander said via KLD, examining the eerie symbol from a distance.
“Aye, Commander,” they said in unison, their voices muffled by static.
Silence descended in the tunnel. The commander and archeologists waited for the others to reach the bottom and make contact. Not long after, the trio screamed. Their agonizing voices over the kinetic link device caused their commanding officer to shudder. Even the sandstalker flinched at their abrupt shrieks of torment.
“Sergeant!” the commander called out. “Private! Do you read me?”
“What in the twelve dimensions is down there?” asked one of the five archeologists, his expression filled with intrigue rather than fear.
“Do you think Khal’jan is okay?” asked another.
Rah’tera withdrew, activating his kinetic link. “The commander forced your brother down a hole with two soldiers and all I heard was screaming,” he whispered.
“What?” exclaimed Shirakaya. “Get your ass down there and save Khal!”
The assassin grinned behind his mask. Ending his KLD transmission, he grabbed a SG-43 grenade from his belt and hurled it at the group. In perfect synchronization, they looked down at the ground where it landed, gawking. But before any of them were able to realize that a bomb lay by their feet, it detonated. Dense gas erupted from the explosion, knocking them unconscious. Seeing that the path was clear, Rah�
��tera uncloaked himself and leapt into the hole.
IV
Surrounded by Death
The depth of the pit took Rah’tera by surprise. Using both of his plasma daggers, he carved them into the flattened walls on either side to halt his descent. Although shockwave boosters would have slowed his fall more efficiently, he preferred to remain in the hole. He gradually lowered himself until he could see the bottom of the pit, using his KLD as a flashlight.
Aiming the device downward, Rah’tera saw a pile of dead bodies that had been torn in half. Taking in the horrid sight, he activated his kinetic link to inform Shirakaya of his findings when another quake struck. This time, the walls started caving inward. Rah’tera gasped, having no choice but to release his daggers and drop below.
“Get to the other cornerstone!” Khal’jan yelled, seeing the sandstalker.
Like bolts of lightning, red rays of death materialized from above a sealed entryway. Both beams met and became entangled in midair, moving toward Rah’tera who flipped out of harm’s way in the nick of time. The rays, however, kept following him. With little time to lose, he raised an arm and launched a grappling hook at the votrigon ceiling.
Swinging across the antechamber, Rah’tera brought himself to the same cornerstone that Khal’jan had pointed out a moment ago. As soon as he landed on the stone, it lowered and produced a clicking sound, at which point the beams deactivated. The duo stood across from each other, unresponsive for a few seconds.
“Who the heck are you?”
“The name’s Rah’tera,” he said, breathing deeply through his gasmask. “Your sister is looking for you.”
“My sister? Shira? Here? That’s not possible.”
“Your parents told her you’d been assigned to this excavation site. While hard to believe that Vei-Pyirye’s Remnant has been discovered, it was Shira’s only lead. And now, here we are. Stuck inside and ready to die.”
“Not by a long shot,” Khal’jan said in defiance, standing up. “Where’s my sister?”
Rah’tera pointed above. “The military prevented her from seeing you or getting too close to this site. So, she had me come instead.”
“How did you manage to get through security?”
The sandstalker responded by cloaking himself.
Khal’jan let out a subtle chuckle. “Figures,” he said, observing his surroundings. “I’m only going to say this once. Fancy tech won’t save you. If you wanna stay alive, follow all my instructions.”
“I’ll...try,” the assassin said, amused.
Fixing his eyes on an octagonal panel above the sealed door, Khal’jan asked, “How good is your accuracy?”
“I’d be dead right now if it wasn’t decent.”
“In that case,” Khal’jan continued while pointing upward, “can you throw one of those fallen rocks at the button?”
“You forgot to ask how my reflexes are.”
Before the archeologist could ask him, Rah’tera performed a cartwheel toward the middle of the room. Grabbing a rock, he threw it at the octagonal panel before the reactivated rays could reach him. An electrical noise rang out, and the door clanked open. Rah’tera sprinted ahead, the beams pursuing him.
Seeing the assassin advance, Khal’jan broke into a run too. One of the rays shifted, tailing the archeologist. By sheer luck, it seemed, they both managed to pass through the entryway. Both rays deactivated, no longer sensing any movement. The duo stood still, observing the new area. Before them lay a hall made of votrigon, shimmering with recessed lights embedded in the floor.
“Don’t move.”
Rah’tera listened intently, trying to contact Shirakaya. When his KLD didn’t respond, he grimaced. Examining the corridor, Khal’jan took a step forward. The glossy, tile-like pane he stood on revealed his reflection. Before moving again, the archeologist used his KLD to study the floor. Not receiving any warnings, he stepped onto another panel. Nothing occurred. This time, he observed the walls.
“You’re a little too cautious for my own taste,” Rah’tera said, striding across the hall while maintaining his cloaking device.
“I hope you’re not moving.”
The assassin passed him without a word. Several footsteps later, however, a dull tile that lacked a reflection transformed into a puddle of darkness. Rah’tera’s cloaking device instantly malfunctioned, causing him to gasp as he was sucked into the void trap. Before it could consume the sandstalker’s entire body, Khal’jan caught his hand. It took all the strength he could muster to lift Rah’tera’s upper body.
“Save yourself,” he said, seeing him struggle. “I wouldn’t risk my life to save you, so why should you risk yours for me?”
Khal’jan let out a loud groan. “What kind of nonsense is that? You already risked your life by entering this temple. Now shut up and lift your legs! If you can get at least one leg out of that trap, then you have a chance.”
“I can’t even feel my lower half...”
The archeologist set his environmental suit to maximum power, using its limited supply of energy to give him the extra strength needed to lift Rah’tera out of the void trap. He screamed as if his back had split, then elevated the assassin and dropped him onto an area of the votrigon floor that appeared lustrous.
“By the Eternal Oasis, what was that?”
“One of countless traps,” Khal’jan said, hunching over to relieve his back. “Only step on tiles that are shiny.”
Rah’tera gave a subtle nod, getting to his feet. With vigilance, the duo advanced through the hall. Upon reaching the entryway at the other side, they stopped and fixed their eyes on six panels adorned with calligraphy. This time, the assassin dared not fiddle with anything. Khal’jan, on the other hand, extended his hand toward the middle console.
“You sure about this?”
The archeologist paused. “Not really. But, according to my research, I discerned that midpoints are relevant. That is, of course, if this is the same lost civilization that I’ve been studying.”
Continuing to reach out, Khal’jan erased the swirling lines within the central sand-like console. At that moment, an ice-cold beam from above blasted the duo, its sheer power knocking them to the floor. Though their force fields initially protected them, they malfunctioned by the time the icy ray dissipated.
“Not the same then?”
“I still believe it is,” Khal’jan said, standing up and reexamining the panels. “There’s just another trick to it, that’s all.”
Khal’jan took his time, knowing full well that he only had one more chance without a functioning force field. Porting a DP-823 via KLD, he reviewed his notes on the symbols. After a long moment, he shook his head and regrettably erased the artistic lines in the consoles before him.
“What have you done?” Rah’tera asked angrily.
Just as he grabbed the archeologist, intending to punch him, the doors cracked open from the center and swung forward on either side. Glancing at each other, they entered a dark chamber whose walls caught fire. Moments later, the whole room lit up. Then the entrance behind the pair resealed itself and became enveloped in flames, forcing them to the center of the room. Rah’tera cursed under his breath while the archeologist winced at the inferno.
“Now what?”
Before the archeologist could respond, a wave of flame emerged from his left and formed into a fiery entity. It charged toward Khal’jan who cringed. The archeologist was expecting his demise when Rah’tera brazenly struck the entity with two daggers enchanted with frost. Rime spread throughout the enflamed form, dousing it.
To the duo’s surprise, fire stretched upward to the ceiling. They gazed at it, witnessing wild flame launch itself back down to the floor, forming into two entities. Porting out a pistol, Rah’tera threw it over to his companion and managed to cloak himself again. Without hesitation, Khal’jan aimed the gun at a fiend and shot frost beams at it. Before the other entity attacked, Rah’tera struck it sidelong. Although his cloaking field deactivated and n
eeded to recharge, he still managed to kill the fiend.
“Wave your beam,” Rah’tera said.
Acknowledging the sandstalker’s advice, Khal’jan maneuvered his gun high and low, causing the beam to hit other parts of the creature’s form. Within seconds, it was doused. They rejoined at the center of the chamber, their eyes darting around. Snatching the chance, Khal’jan took a clip from the assassin and reloaded his weapon.
“Thank you.”
Rah’tera didn’t respond; he simply gazed at the northern wall where the flames were growing wilder. Three more entities emerged, this time launching fireballs. Jumping out of harm’s way, Khal’jan managed to evade death. Adrenaline pumping, Rah’tera cloaked himself again and vanished into the shadows while his comrade opened fire. All three entities fixated on the archeologist, summoning more fireballs.
“Rah’tera?” he squeaked.
Uncloaking between two fiends, the assassin struck them. The enchantments on both his daggers, however, quickly waned. As he defeated those entities, the third monstrosity launched a barrage of fireballs at him before Khal’jan had a chance to kill it. Rah’tera ducked from one and rolled away from another, but the third and fourth spheres blasted him against a wall. He let out an agonizing wail, his body aflame.
Wide-eyed, Khal’jan kept his beam steady on the fiend and obliterated it. As the wild flames in the chamber faded, the archeologist ran over to his companion who lay burnt on the floor, smoke rising from his sizzling body. While he searched his kinetic link device in order to find a healing sedative for Rah’tera, the central floor opened, revealing a spiral staircase leading downward.
“Leave me,” the assassin rasped through his gasmask, barely able to breathe. “Today the flames of Geysarpa escort me to paradise.”
Khal’jan knelt beside him, slack-jawed. “You must be a sandstalker. I know all about the mythos of Geysarpa. No offense, but the only person escorting you out of this cursed pyramid is me.”
The archeologist lifted him over his shoulders. Turning, he faced the staircase and warily approached it. After careful examination, he descended the steps. Reaching the base, he found himself in a cavernous lair with a pit ahead. Beyond the pitch-black abyss lay the other half of the floor where a glowing door stood.