Lair

by Carl Stubblefield

  What had happened here? As he approached the breaker panel, he slid the latch and opened the door. Stepping closer to push the master breaker, he extended his hand, reaching out when there was a loud *CRACK!*

  Chapter Forty-One

  Sabotage

  “Dammit, Holmes!” someone yelled. Everyone looked back as Holmes sheepishly stepped back, revealing a cracked motherboard from one of the broken pieces of equipment. Methiochos flipped the breaker on and the computers came back to life, taking longer to reboot because of the sudden power loss. The records showed Dara checking in about three hours before, then checking out just a short time afterward.

  There should have been nine other people in the infirmary, including staff, those getting routine physicals, and four receiving treatment after minor injuries while training. The communicator vibrated a bit, indicating an incoming message.

  “Sir, you wanted us to give you a proximity alert when we were fifty miles from the island. I expect us to be there within the hour,” came the notice from the bridge.

  “Acknowledged. You haven’t noticed anything… off, have you?”

  “No, sir. Although, we haven’t been receiving status reports as often, which is common when the men are making final preparations for landfall and debarking.”

  “Noted. Thank you, let me know if there are any changes. Methiochos out.” Leaving the infirmary, the quiet in the otherwise busy hallways was unsettling. While trying to formulate his next orders, there was a scuttling in the ductwork above. Gritting his teeth, he yelled, “Follow that noise!”

  Whatever was in the ducts had bolted and the men ran recklessly, rushing to overtake whatever was inside. Eventually they ended at the research labs. Humanoid forms dropped in through the ductwork. Their limbs were bent at impossible angles and they leaped around, spilling papers and knocking trays with samples off counters as they attacked the poor scientists within. Before the soldiers could make it inside, some contaminant detector activated and the large white sliding doors went into lockdown mode. White foggy gas sprayed from the ceiling, filling the room with decontaminant, but also obscuring the view.

  Methiochos tried to override the door lock but even his clearance would not allow the doors to release a possible pathogen once the lockdown was initiated. The crashing sounds soon stilled, but nothing could be seen in the swirling white mist.

  Another hum and someone from the bridge announced, “Sir, you said to contact you if anything irregular happened. There is a little girl here, she says she needs to see you… I was unaware that there were any children on this mission…” he trailed off.

  “What the hell is going on here?!” Methiochos yelled. Keying his comms, he advised the bridge he’d be right there. He signaled the group to follow as he made his way to the bridge. Had Archon expected his betrayal? Was this some ability affecting his crew, or some engineered creatures attacking them? No, those were all his own men and women in the barracks. Something had changed them. They entered the lift, unsure of what to expect next.

  Methiochos stormed out as soon as the doors opened, determined to salvage this mission. He had worked too damned hard to lose it all now. At least on the bridge, he could manage the whole ship’s systems, and figure out who this kid belonged to in the process. Mission guidelines were strict, and he had not selected anyone who had extended family ties, knowing that they would not be able to leave the island once they were situated and the shield was in place. Who had broken protocol, bringing a child on board?

  The bridge crew was managing the final approach, with the first mate standing near a small girl, clutching a small doll close to her face. She looked timid and scared, the way she folded in on herself, holding the doll for dear life.

  As he approached, the timid girl turned to face him and recognition flashed in her eyes. She suddenly seemed less timid as she straightened and faced the imposing general.

  “Who are you, little girl, and what are you doing on my ship?” Methiochos demanded.

  “You’ve been bad,” she said defiantly, “so my friend Basil said you needed to be punished.”

  “Basil? What does he have to do with anything?”

  “He knows what you were doing so he made a surprise for you. Do you want to know the secret? I told the lady at the hospital and she told everyone there.”

  Methiochos grabbed the little girl by the arms, lifting her roughly off the ground, giving her a little shake. “Tell me what you have done!” In response, she moved her doll as if it was giving him a kiss on one of the arms securing her. Methiochos felt a pinprick and dropped the girl in surprise. She dropped the doll and he could see a tiny needle poking out of its mouth, dripping a purple-black liquid from the tip. The girl grabbed the doll and scrambled under one of the consoles.

  “Basil made them and put them in Margaret! He said that they would teach you all a lesson for lying to his daddy!” One of the soldiers attempted to pry the little girl out from under the console and received a poke to the leg from the doll; he cursed savagely at her.

  Methiochos started to feel lightheaded. He didn’t know what the needle contained, but it felt like some kind of heavy tranquilizer. The captain, still focusing on maneuvering the large transport asked, “Final approach, should I land?” Methiochos nodded numbly.

  For a couple seconds, the stupor waned, and he could see the bridge erupting in chaos. The girl was running around the room with unnatural speed, swinging the doll and hitting anyone she could, crawling in and out of spaces that should not be able to fit a human body. One of the soldiers managed to hit her with a swift punch to the side of the head and the girl crumpled to the floor. His soldiers all had augmented strength, so no doubt the girl had suffered massive brain trauma or had her spine snapped.

  Some of the men began shaking uncontrollably. Someone must have had poor trigger discipline because his gun went off, shooting the pilot as the ship was descending.

  Pulling the man out of the chair, Methiochos grabbed the controls and attempted to stabilize the large craft. It was much more unwieldy than the small combat transports he had flown in the military, but the controls were the same. He could see the manor, but steered clear. Who knew how many other stowaways were on board? Site B then. He could hit the containment field and sort things out. After they were clear, he activated the bio-stasis field remotely. That should keep Manticorps out. Nice try, Archon. The blue green bubble arced past the ship enveloping it and the island.

  The grogginess began to kick in again, and Methiochos saw his self-healing skill draining his psi-energy almost completely. It had staved off whatever was trying to infect him, but he knew this landing was not going to be pretty. Site B was built under a large lava-flow. He hoped it would be strong enough to hold the transport. He could barely focus, and the ship crashed into the rock that formed the roof of Site B, slightly on its side. The ship slid on the incline and flipped over, the dome of the ship’s bridge puncturing into the structure below, securing it from sliding. The crushed supports securing the dome of the ship were shorn away and fell into the large room below, spilling glass and debris everywhere. Methiochos felt stabs of pain everywhere, and had to grab onto the seat as the cavern gaped below. The cutting sensation, trying to pull him away from the memory grew more intense. He was almost done, he just needed to…

  Something grabbed him in a bear hug and pulled him away from the chair, twisting backward as if trying to perform a wrestling move. The attacker slipped as it lost its foothold and they both fell out of the ship onto the unforgiving ground. Unfortunately for the attacker, he was the first to hit and braced Methiochos’ fall. Still, he had hit awkwardly and his left ankle bent at an unnatural angle. Coughing as he rolled away from the now-inert attacker, he saw one of his soldiers, muscles swollen and continuing to writhe like there were angry worms crawling under his skin.

  More bodies began to fall and jump to the chamber below. Methiochos crawled to the control panel on the far side of the cavern. Pressing his bloody hand o
n the panel, he brought up the site defenses on the console and turned on the perimeter containment fields. Now, whatever or whoever was on the ship was trapped in here with him, for better or worse. Better to sacrifice himself to keep people free. From what he had seen it resembled only one thing… but that couldn’t be. That was just a myth to scare recruits…

  He sat down, his back leaning against the console, looking at his broken ankle. Dark particles swarmed over it, dissolving the broken limb to a stump. Oddly, it didn’t hurt like it did when Methiochos had to use his self-healing to reset a bone. Focusing the last of his mental reserves, he tried to refashion the altered appendage. As if in retaliation, more of the dark particles swarmed his lower body. He noticed that as this happened, his mind became much clearer, and the grogginess eased.

  As the particles swarmed over his legs, he could see that he was changing and that his efforts to control his healing were met with a barrier. So be it. He marshalled his attention, abandoning his legs and set to making a bulwark of his mind, shoring up his defenses for when the Dark returned. He knew how to fight, and the general knew when to abandon a position that was overrun. This… thing… would not defeat him. Let the battle begin.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Payback

  Day 10 4:43 AM

  0:18:27 remaining

  Gus sighed in relief that he hadn’t inadvertently messed up his latest project too badly. There were no knots, and he learned how to make tiny ether hooks that suspended the rim, much like a shower curtain. From there, he easily made the transition for his first part of the plan.

  Nick had guided the glitter-like framework to overlay Gus’ current suit to gain some information on how he moved as a precursor to functioning as an armor.

  “How well are you integrating so far, Nick?”

  “Still synchronizing basic movement. It’ll be a while before the hybrid Nth can function as an armor adjunct just yet, so try to stay out of sight for now, and keep moving.”

  “I’ll admit I’m underwhelmed so far,” Gus griped, “and we need to hurry! That whole process took way too long.” Gus made some final preparations to some drones as he complained.

  “Yeah, yeah. It’ll be soon; distract yourself kicking some zombie butt in the meantime.”

  Not a bad idea. Gus opened the window to the room he had found closest to the courtyard below. He wanted to be in range to use his abilities, and this was a lucky find. This floor was mostly office suites located two stories above the lawn, with a view of the ocean. He didn’t know how anyone could work here; he would’ve been too distracted to get much done, staring at the tropical bay and the waves rolling in below.

  Using his controller, he activated the programmed routine and sent out the drones with their payload. After the small contraptions cleared the window, Gus sealed it again. He didn’t want any curious Mantids climbing up to discover where the drones had come from. The controller had a strong enough signal that he didn’t lose any bars with the window closed, and Gus selected one and viewed the teeming masses below the drone’s camera.

  When they were in position, Gus used the drone’s cameras to tweak their position so they were over the most populated area of zombies as possible. He found where all the observers were clustered together, trying to access the voice command pylons. Shamblers swayed in place around them as Mantids weaved through the crowd. The Juggernauts were not to be seen, and Gus suspected they were taking shifts banging on the doors.

  On his command, the drones all plunged toward the ground together. A circular swath a hundred feet across enveloped the largest density of the horde and swallowed them up into the large rim of an enormous bag of holding. The drones dropped to ground level then began to converge inward toward each other in the center. The Shamblers who had not been caught up stared onward dumbly. Hearing the high-pitched whine of propellers, Mantids and Juggernauts turned to see what had happened, but not seeing past the Shamblers crowding immediately around the drones, they turned back to their work of trying to bash in the front doors.

  Once the drones had met in the center, they began to fly upward, then inverted their arrangement to keep gravity pulling any of the zombies out of the opening. Seeing that the zombies had made no retaliation, he opened the window again, and stepped out onto the sill, to ensure he didn’t lose the signal.

  Gus directed the drones to take their payload out to sea. From his vantage he could see the drones fly past Atlantis Beach and off to the ocean. Gus was worried the distance would be a problem but the signal bars remained strong even when the drones reached their prescribed destination. Gus reversed the flying formation so the enormous bag of holding was again open underneath and instructed the drones to spread out.

  Zombies of different shapes and forms began spilling out of the opening, tumbling end over end until they splashed into the water a hundred feet below. Gus wasn’t sure if this would kill the zombies, but Nick had assured him that the inside of a pocket dimension was not conducive to life of any kind if the bag was sealed for as short as five minutes, probably less. He wasn’t sure, but he didn’t see any of the bodies flailing about in his magnified display. He expected this of the Shamblers, but wanted to see if any of the more active Mantids were affected.

  Gus ordered the drones to return and surveyed the lawn area. While they returned he zoomed in with his augmented vision and looked at the water. Nothing moved of its own power, it must have worked! There were a couple zombies that had drifted back onto the circular area of cut grass where it had been sheared away from the bag’s displacement. The numbers seemed much more manageable, but Gus wanted to try to scoop up as many as he could.

  Unfortunately, with significantly fewer Shamblers moaning and banging around, the whirl of the drones was more noticeable to the Mantids, who began to congregate to view this electronic interloper. After finding they could not reach the drones by jumping from the ground, some Mantids began to climb the manor and leap outward, tumbling and falling as they missed. None of them seemed to be damaged by the huge falls though, to Gus’ disappointment.

  Gus tried for a second drop and some of the Mantids leaped out of the way, but a fair number hit roaming Shamblers and could not dodge the edge of the descending bag. After it fell, Mantids fell upon the drones and shredded the fragile devices. Some jumped in the circular ring of fabric tearing it to shreds. The thin rim of the bag of holding remained on the ground inconspicuously. The creatures did not appear to have enough understanding to mess with the thin strand lying on the ground, and fortunately did not invert it.

  Time to move to phase two. Gus grabbed another set of controllers and turrets supported by four drones were deployed to the area in front of the manor. Gus maintained the drones above the jump range of the Mantids and let the carnage begin. Mantids and Shamblers began falling in waves. Gus’ happiness was short-lived, as the Mantids began tearing body parts off of the fallen and throwing them at the drones. Before he could change their altitude, more than half of the turret-drones were hit and came crashing down. Loss of even one drone meant the rest were insufficient to keep the turret aloft, and the turrets were torn apart either by the fall or Mantid attack. Still, they were able to selectively target around twenty Mantids before they had to retreat.

  The turrets were much less deadly at the greater height, with their accuracy dropping off rapidly. Gus chose to recall them before they wasted their power. Juggernauts had come away from the front door to investigate the fracas. Gus had been waiting for this, and tried out his T-Wrecks skill for the first time. A fifteen-foot creature materialized, formed out of ether condensed into typical matter and directed by the Nth. The dinosaur bellowed and Gus mentally commanded it to target the Juggernauts. The dinosaur easily snapped through the head and shoulders of a Juggernaut, and a well-placed tail swish knocked three approaching Juggernauts back, staggering one and breaking the legs of the other two.

  As more Juggernauts approached, the dinosaur would bite and scratch with a clawed foot. The
creature’s larger mass and strength overcame Nth-reinforced muscle and tore through the zombie tanks. Once in a while, one would slip past and land a solid punch on a leg or the chest as the monster was turned and fighting other enemies, but a quick bite or kick ended these attacks with extreme prejudice.

  While the Juggernauts were no match for the T-Wrecks, the Mantids were what brought it down. They managed to leap onto its back and began to bite and tear. The construct made an effort to shake them off, but the Mantids held on like ticks. The damage added up and the dinosaur dissolved into nothingness. Gus checked his logs, but unfortunately, he gained no XP from the drone or T-Wrecks’ kills. When I have time, I’ll need to ask Nick about that…

  Gus caught the one Juggernaut closest to him with Wreck-luse, and he stampeded over a couple Shamblers and a Mantid who were not expecting him to turn and run. Another Mantid was stiff-armed by the Juggernaut and flew back into a wall of the manor, falling boneless to the ground after its spine was snapped.

  Gus surveyed the remaining zombies and their number had been reduced to fifty or less, with only Shamblers and a dozen Mantids in the mix. Gus could not see any remaining Juggernauts, but the relentless banging had stopped so he hoped there were few to none of the beefy zombies left.

  A Mantid climbed onto the roof, facing the courtyard, looking for attackers. Gus threw his naginata, severing its spine, and then retracted the weapon with Ether Leash. There was enough chaos in the zombie ranks that he was not noticed.

  He edged out farther on the balcony and was able to pick off four more Shamblers in the same way, but after that, the remaining zombies remained out of a direct line of sight.

  Time to move to the final phase. Following the map Nick had provided, Gus made his way to floor twenty-three. As he made his way down the hallways to the external exit, the floor looked unfinished compared to others. He had to confirm first generation access again to stop on the floor.