by Adair Hart
Nanobot Emily nodded. “Seems straightforward.”
Evaran eased back into his chair and laced his fingers in front of him. “It does. However, we still need to deal with all the guards on the way there. Once we are in, the area will swarm, so we need to be quick. In and out.”
“Well … I’m wearing the survival suit for this one,” said Dr. Snowden.
“I figured as much. I would have suggested you and both Emilys stay behind for this, but I know you will not agree.”
Dr. Snowden half smiled.
“So who’s in our way?” asked Lord Vygon with a smirk.
“Analysis. Three types of guards were analyzed,” said V.
Evaran nodded and swiped his hand across his ARI. The projection changed to a large man around seven feet tall in a golden suit of advanced heavy armor. He wielded a large energy shield with a solid border in his left hand and had a big forearm guard with a crystal embedded in it. Glowing swords hung off his waist and a staff weapon rested on his back. “This was the first type V scanned. I call it a heavy guard. They appear to be heavily armored with melee weapons and a ranged weapon on their forearms. There are not too many of these.”
“Uhh … that guy is kinda big,” said Dr. Snowden.
“Yes … I suspect that although they are human, there has been some genetic engineering,” said Evaran.
“So much for human purity.”
Evaran glanced at Dr. Snowden, then tapped at his ARI, and the projection changed to a normal-sized human male in a black mesh suit with gray pads outlined in silver. His head was covered in a tight-fitting cloth, and goggles with red lenses sat on his face. Small sidearms rested on his thighs and a sword on his back.
Dr. Snowden wrinkled his eyebrows. It reminded him of an advanced ninja.
Evaran gestured at the projection. “This is the second type that V scanned. Although less in number, they seem to reside in areas of higher security along with the heavy guards. I call them strikers. I suspect they can move faster and are more agile.”
Dr. Snowden sneaked a look at Organic Emily. She had narrowed eyes and was clenching and unclenching her fist. It seemed that she was looking forward to the prospect of fighting these guards.
Evaran brought up the third projection. Like the second one, it showed a normal-sized human. He wore a leather-like suit with sporadic pieces of silver armor on it and carried a staff weapon with a crystal embedded in one end. A cloth wrapped around the lower part of his face, with a headband containing a crystal on the upper part. “This is the third type. These are the most numerous, and I refer to them as the regular guards. The staff weapon they carry can fire bursts of energy. I am unsure how that is possible, as the scan revealed very few moving parts, but the profile is similar to the ones we saw at the first base. I have not had much time to study this technology.”
“So … how many we looking at?” asked Lord Vygon.
V tapped at the table console, and dots appeared near the blue line. A legend showing the type of guard and dot color appeared. The locked doors became visible as well. “Analysis. Base contains a complement of four hundred. The path chosen has twenty-five guards with four doors.”
Lord Vygon narrowed his eyes. “I don’t like it. Something’s off here. I know this is an inaccessible place, but that seems way too weak. Perhaps we can get some help from Atlantis.”
Evaran shook his head. “They have already sacrificed a large portion of their groups and need to focus on Earth.”
“I guess … sure could use more help is all I’m saying.”
Evaran studied Lord Vygon for a moment. “Stealth will be to our advantage. That is better achieved with a small group. V, take us to the landing pad.”
“Acknowledged.”
Evaran faced Dr. Snowden and both Emilys. “Get your survival suits on. You will want your shield deployed and repulsing weapon out.”
“I’d like to keep this suit on,” said Organic Emily. “I could use an energy shield, though.”
Evaran tilted his head. “Are you sure?”
Organic Emily nodded.
“Very well. Meet up at the Torvatta exit in thirty minutes.”
Dr. Snowden exited the room with the others. It seemed like the assembled group would be able to handle any threat. Organic Emily’s choice to not wear a survival suit intrigued him. While her suit seemed sturdier, it did not have the PSD interface bound to it. Maybe she was more proficient with the PSD than he was aware. It could also be that the PSD had more functionality that he did not know of. He shook his head and went to get his survival suit on.
Thirty minutes later, everyone assembled at the Torvatta exit.
Dr. Snowden noted that Organic Emily had a forearm device similar to the survival suit. He did not know if it had been removed from a survival suit or if it was a separate device. Nanobot Emily had on the same suit as he, and Lord Vygon and Evaran had on their regular suits.
“V has landed the Torvatta in stealth mode on the pad,” said Evaran. He gestured out. “There is a hallway leading directly out of here with two guards on each side. An enclosed room is off to the right with a worker. V is hovering there now. Lord Vygon is going to rush and take out the worker, and V will place my UIC on the console. The alarm system will be disabled. I am going to rush the guards. Once it is secured, everyone will advance to my position at the door. Understood?”
Everyone nodded.
“Good,” said Evaran. He nodded at Lord Vygon and pointed forward. “Go.”
Lord Vygon rushed out of the Torvatta.
Evaran waved for the others to follow him to the edge of the Torvatta’s shielding. After a moment, he rushed with shield raised toward the startled regular guards. His utility handle had extended into a baton with a glowing white end. He raised it and fired a repulsion blast, knocking both guards down. When Evaran reached them, he interacted with his utility handle, causing the baton end to glow blue. He tapped both guards with his baton, causing them to shudder, then stop moving. He waved for Dr. Snowden and both Emilys to come over.
When Dr. Snowden arrived, he looked to his right and saw Lord Vygon give a nod from the doorway of the enclosed room.
Evaran tapped at his ARI, and the door in front of them slid up. “The alarm system has been disabled.” He gestured forward. “This hallway leads to a very large circular room. We will take the corridor on the right side of it once we are there.”
Dr. Snowden snorted. This was almost too easy. Then again, what base expected someone like Evaran and his abilities, an ancient vampire, and three people that could stun and repulse from afar?
As they neared the large room, Evaran raised a hand. His eyebrows furrowed. “This was unexpected.”
“I don’t sense anything,” said Lord Vygon, looking around.
Evaran ran his hand over his mouth. “A Hadryn spawn is coming, and I suspect he is not alone.” He gestured toward a console inside the room near the right hallway exit. “V, put my UIC on that console.”
“Acknowledged,” said V as he flew into the room.
Dr. Snowden raised a finger. “And what is a Hadryn spawn exactly?”
“Something not of this plane. They are ancient and powerful. I was not expecting one to be here.”
“Oh … well … that’s just great.”
“I will draw the Hadryn spawn over to the other side of the base. It will come for me,” said Evaran. He swept his finger out. “Everyone else will head to the main rift stone.”
“I’m not leaving you to fight this thing alone!” said Lord Vygon with an intent gaze.
Evaran looked down for a moment. He sighed as he looked back up. “I do not make this decision lightly. If this Hadryn spawn were to interfere, I do not think we would prevail. At best, I can stall him until we can disable the main rift stone.”
Organic Emily waved a finger between Dr. Snowden and Nanobot Emily. “We will be okay if Lord Vygon wants to go with you. V can guide us to the main rift stone, and we can deal with any guards.
Three people who can stun and repulse them should be more than enough. Most will be focused on trying to get to this room anyways.”
“I cannot allow—”
“Trust me. Take Lord Vygon with you.”
Evaran eyed Organic Emily. “Very well. You can use the PSD to morph hammers to break the stone.” He handed three orbs to her, which she put in a pouch on her belt. “These will nullify the exotic energy coursing through them.” He tapped at his ARI. “I have opened all the doors there. Once you leave this room, I am going to seal off the hallway behind us and the one you are taking.”
Organic Emily nodded. “We can do this.”
Dr. Snowden’s stomach twisted. It went from easy to hard in a matter of minutes. This Hadryn spawn must be dangerous enough for Evaran to make the decision to accept help in fighting it. Dr. Snowden knew Evaran did not want the Hadryn spawn to involve either Emily or himself.
Evaran pointed off to the right hallway inside the room. “Stay along the walls. Go.”
Dr. Snowden followed Nanobot Emily, who followed Organic Emily. V flew ahead of them and waited for them at the exit. When they reached it and stepped inside the corridor, a door began to slide down. Before it shut down, he saw the other door in the room begin to close and Evaran and Lord Vygon head to the opposite doorway from where they all had initially entered the room.
Nanobot Emily tugged on his arm. “C’mon!”
Dr. Snowden nodded and turned. He waved his wrist around and studied the HUD where he could see not only where they were headed, but any life-sign scans V was showing.
At the first T-junction, they turned left. A patrol of eight regular guards had rushed into the hallway they just entered but were immediately bowled over by Organic Emily’s repulsion blast. Nanobot Emily and Dr. Snowden fired their stun beams on the fallen guards. When they reached a large room, several entrenched positions with a small cannon faced their direction. A complement of heavy guards along with several strikers guarded each cannon. Regular guards were scattered around the room.
Dr. Snowden shook his head. “This is a trap.”
Organic Emily smiled. “I know.” She faced V. “Generate a distraction at the back of the room. We’re going to take one of those cannons and turn it on the others.”
“Acknowledged.”
Dr. Snowden jerked his head back. “Uhh … are you serious?”
“Of course.”
Dr. Snowden sighed. “Great.”
Nanobot Emily squeezed his right arm. “We can do this.”
Organic Emily pointed forward. “V, go!”
“Acknowledged,” said V. He flew to the back of the room and projected a mass of Helians entering the room and firing.
The startled guards began to rotate the cannons toward the back. The regular guards rushed toward the distraction.
“Now!” said Organic Emily. She rushed along the left wall, with Dr. Snowden and Nanobot Emily behind her. When she reached the first cannon, she stunned the striker and two heavy guards. As they fell to the ground, she got behind the cannon and began to fire on the other cannons.
The confused guards began cross-firing on themselves.
Dr. Snowden crouched behind the left cannon mount’s raised sides. He used it to peek out and shoot a mix of stun and repulsion blasts.
Nanobot Emily did the same, except on the right side.
Dr. Snowden’s blood chilled when he saw one of the strikers fade away. “The strikers have stealth!”
Organic Emily smirked. “To the visual senses maybe.”
Dr. Snowden raised his eyebrows as his palms sweat. Organic Emily was enjoying this. He watched as the remaining guards fell one by one. He relaxed a bit as the last one crumpled. Organic Emily had jumped off the cannon and ran to the middle of the room. She struck what he thought was just air, but the hit connected with a stealthed striker.
As the striker fell, Organic Emily extended her PSD into a staff and raised it to bash the striker’s head in.
Dr. Snowden ran out. “What are you doing!”
“Ending the threat.”
“You … want to kill him?”
Organic Emily stared at Dr. Snowden for a moment, then sighed and retracted her staff. She shot the striker with a stun beam. “Look around. What do you think the cannon I was firing did to those guards?”
Dr. Snowden’s blood ran cold. “What did that prison planet do to you?”
Organic Emily snorted and glanced at Nanobot Emily, then back at Dr. Snowden. “You weren’t there. I’m the same Emily you’ve always known. I just refuse to be prey anymore.” Her voice rose. “Not to these animals, or anyone else! Never again!” Her eyes smoldered.
Dr. Snowden saw Nanobot Emily look down. He sighed. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Organic Emily exhaled from her nose. She looked away. “Fine. Let’s go.”
They exited the room.
Dr. Snowden’s mind went over the discussion they just had. He understood that there would be some impact, just not this severe. While he only knew the highlights, he figured the close brushes with death caused Organic Emily to reevaluate her thinking. He wondered if he would do the same; then again, his anger had ballooned out of control in just two outings with Evaran. With a sigh, he focused on the rest of the journey. He appreciated the narrow confines of the hallway when they ran into other groups of guards. Between V’s distraction and their repulsion and stun blast combinations, they were unstoppable, and more importantly, no more had to die. His eyes had popped open when a guard hit Nanobot Emily. Her wound shimmered for a moment, then disappeared.
They reached the main rift crystal room after ten more minutes of traversing. Once there, they disabled the few guards present and removed them from the room. V placed the UIC on the console door, and after he contacted Evaran, the doors sealed. In the center of the room was a cylindrical light-blue shield. Inside it was a large, smooth stone in an oblong shape floating in midair. Around the shield at both the top and bottom of the room were circular golden stepped bases. To their right along the wall was a raised platform with two advanced workstations. A large rift controller sat between them.
Dr. Snowden walked over to the first workstation. “So … I guess we need to disable that shield somehow.”
Organic Emily tossed one of the orbs Evaran had given her at the shield.
The shield fluctuated for a moment, then changed to a light-yellow color.
“What was that about?” asked Dr. Snowden.
“The shield had an exotic energy component. Couldn’t you sense it?” asked Organic Emily.
Dr. Snowden shook his head. He had been so distracted by the previous discussion that he found it hard to focus.
“Well … now we just need to disable this shield. V?”
V flew over and placed Evaran’s UIC on the workstation. “I will inform Evaran the shield needs to be removed.”
After a moment, the shield dissipated.
Organic Emily tossed another orb at the floating stone, causing it to vibrate. She tossed the last one.
The stone’s vibrations shook the room.
After it stopped, Organic Emily morphed her PSD end into a hammer. “Now we need to smash it. C’mon.”
Dr. Snowden and Nanobot Emily complied. When they all tried to smash the stone, it had no effect.
“We might have a problem … ,” said Dr. Snowden.
Nanobot Emily placed her hands on the main rift stone. “We won’t be able to smash this. It’s pretty resilient. There’s … something odd mixed in with it.”
“So … what do we do then?”
“I guess we wait for Evaran,” said Nanobot Emily. “Until then, I’m going to see if I can interface with it somehow.”
Dr. Snowden nodded and then slumped against the wall. The main rift stone was unbreakable, and Organic Emily had changed. His fear that the prison planet had altered who Organic Emily was seemed to be coming true. He wondered what Evaran would think of this. With a sigh, he hung his h
ead in his hands.
After several minutes, V flew over to Dr. Snowden and then projected a hologram. “This is the composite view from the visual feeds of the landing pad on the other side of the base. The Hadryn spawn has arrived.”
Dr. Snowden studied the projection. The landing pad it showed was similar to the one that they had landed on earlier. A ship he had never seen before sat in it. The landing pad door was closed, and in the middle of the room was Evaran and Lord Vygon. They faced a seven-foot-tall muscular male humanoid wearing only sandals, a kilt-like metallic covering hanging off his waist, and an elaborate golden headband with a large crystal in the center. The cobra mane structure on his head reminded Dr. Snowden of an Egyptian striped head cloth. The man held a black staff that ended in an oval shape with a crystal held in place by silver strands. It was the overlord he had seen from the South American base hologram.
Surrounding the overlord were four heavily armored guards in black and gold that were different than any of the guards he had seen. The main difference was their size. Standing around nine to ten feet tall, they towered over the overlord and wore black face masks with holes for their eyes and noses. The mouth area had a grill appearance, and the red Purifier symbol stood out around the eyeholes. Another difference from the heavy guards was their weapon load out. They had the same forearm weapons, just much larger. On their shoulders sat two rectangular crystals with a steel-like mount.
Dr. Snowden gulped at the swords they carried on their backs. They were at least as big as he was. He figured these four must be the overlord’s personal guards. Around the bodyguards were five heavy guards, two strikers, and ten regular guards. He shook his head. Although Evaran had sealed off the landing pad to just that ship, it carried a formidable force. He exhaled through his nose as Nanobot Emily and Organic Emily crowded around to watch Evaran speak.
“You must be the overlord,” said Evaran.
The overlord smirked and in a deep, purposeful voice said, “And you, the foolish Evaran …” He gestured at the closed landing door. “I see you have gained control of my systems here. Quite unexpected.” He glanced at Lord Vygon. “However, I do appreciate you bringing me a snack.”