by Charles Rye
"Looks like it was made to keep track of the creature's brain and heart activity,"
Koriphus walked up beside Aurelia to examine the monitor.
"I could probably get this thing running, see if it wakes up the Destroyer, if it is still alive that is," Koriphus said looking at the monitor.
"Why would you want to wake that thing up?" Soraf inquired, giving Koriphus a look of confusion.
"We don't know how long this creature has been down here, if we can wake it up maybe we can train it like Zxeron,"
"If we go up against those soldiers again, wouldn't you feel better having two Destroyers instead of just one?" Koriphus replied with a serious look.
Soraf glanced at Zxeron who was standing a few feet from her before looking back up at Koriphus.
"I suppose you're right, it would be nice to have another Destroyer on our side. Those bastards need to know their so called pets can be turned on them," Soraf answered with a small grin.
"Then it's settled, I'll get to work on bringing this big guy to life and then we can train him," Koriphus grinned, rubbing his hands together.
"Hey guys, there seems to be a bunch of papers and folders scattered on the floor over here," Zandrem announced aiming her flashlight towards the far right corner of the room.
Aurelia and Royena looked where Zandrem's beam of light was pointed and noticed the papers and folders.
"They could be important info about this place, maybe something in the folders could tell us about the Destroyer in that tube," Royena said glancing sideways at Aurelia.
"Go help Zandrem gather them up and take them to the supply room, we can go through them later," Aurelia said to Royena.
Royena ran over to where Zandrem was standing and began helping her gather up all the papers and folders, doing her best to keep them from falling out of her arms.
Once she and Zandrem had collected every piece of paper and folder, they made their way upstairs to the base's supply room before returning to the underground chamber.
"Do you really think you can get this thing working?"
"It's covered in a layer of dust, no telling how long it's been down here," Aurelia said looking at Koriphus, who was standing in front of the monitor beside the tube holding the Destroyer.
"Pretty sure, probably just needs some good electricity and whatnot to get it running again," Koriphus replied with a grin.
"In other words, we should all be far away when you try to start this thing?" Aurelia responded, looking at him.
"Yeah, that would be a very good idea. I don't know how this machine will react to my power," Koriphus answered with a nod.
"Got it,"
"Come on guys, everyone back to the base so Koriphus can wake up this Destroyer," Aurelia called as she headed towards the stairs.
Everyone except for Koriphus followed her.
"Are you certain letting Koriphus wake up that Destroyer is a good idea?" Caliphar asked Aurelia as they both peered into the opening of the underground chamber.
"Yes, I am. It would be nice to have an extra Destroyer on our side, especially now since we lost our weapons to the bastards that ambushed us," Aurelia replied glancing sideways at Caliphar.
"I might have a way of helping you get your weapons back," Vorenzar interjected, moving to stand in between Aurelia and Caliphar.
Aurelia looked at Vorenzar directly.
"How can you help us get our weapons back?" She asked in an almost demanding voice.
"There's a weapon bunker maybe two or three Mordren south of here, all the soldiers posted nearby are supposed to take any weapons they confiscate to that bunker," Vorenzar explained.
"And you're just now telling this to us‚" Aurelia said in exaspuration, placing her hands on her hips.
"I didn't remember until just now, maybe after your friend wakes up that Destroyer we can go there," Vorenzar replied honestly.
"Why not go now?" Aurelia asked looking at Vorenzar.
"Because it is surrounded by soldiers and guards, going there with just one Destroyer would be suicidal," Vorenzar answered.
"Going there without our weapons is suicidal‚" Caliphar interrupted.
"Let's give your friend time to wake up that Destroyer while we go through the papers and folders the others found, Vorenzar said stepping away from Aurelia and Caliphar.
"I'm keeping my eye on her," Aurelia whispered to Caliphar.
Caliphar nodded to her as they watched Vorenzar walk towards the supply room.
"So what is all this stuff?" Soraf asked as she and the others joined Royena and Sif in the supply room.
"We're about to find out," Aurelia said moving to stand besides Sif and Royena in front of the counter they had stacked all the papers and folders on.
Aurelia picked up a folder that had the word Private stamped on it and flipped it open, revealing several papers with scribbled notes all over them.
"Read this one, it seems like the first note they made," Royena said pointing at the scribbled message at the top left corner of the paper.
Top Secret
Aurelia looked down at where Royena was pointing.
"This is subject twenty one, better known as prototype and all on-going tests have been rather successful,"
"What kind of tests? Does it say anywhere?" Soraf asked looking at the paper over Aurelia's shoulder.
"Umm‚ I believe it does‚"
Aurelia scanned the other scribbled notes on the paper and spotted one mentioning tests.
"Ah ha, right here‚" She announced pointing at a note scribbled at the bottom right corner of the paper.
"Subject prototype has shown impressive progress throughout tests. Unfortunately, several other subjects have shown signs of illness," Soraf read the note aloud.
"Several other subjects?" Caliphar repeated looking at Soraf and Aurelia.
Aurelia flipped through the papers searching for any further notes about other subjects.
"Here we go‚ The subjects that were showing signs of illness, three have died, two have advanced signs of illness and one seems to be slowly regaining health‚" Aurelia read the note aloud.
"There were other Destroyers in that chamber along with the one in the tube Koriphus is trying to revive or whatever‚"
"We have to find out what the hell happened to the ones that survived!" She exclaimed, almost sounding frightened.
"Royena, Soraf and I will go through all these papers and folders and will hopefully find out what did happen to them,"
"You go with Caliphar, Vorenzar and the others back out to the chamber entrance in case Koriphus needs help," Sif said looking at Aurelia reassuringly.
Caliphar placed his hand on Aurelia's shoulder as they walked out of the supply room with Vorenzar, Zandrem, Roy, Norenia and Zxeron.
"Do you think they'll find anything in those papers?" Aurelia asked looking back Caliphar.
"I'm certain they will and they'll let us know the second they do," He replied with a reassuring smile.
"How are things doing down there, Koriphus?" Caliphar called as he and the others gathered around the entrance to the underground chamber.
"I've just about got this monitor up and running, might take another fifteen or twenty minutes!"
"That's good to hear, Soraf and Royena are helping Sif go through the papers they found down there," Caliphar replied.
"One paper mentioned there used to be more than just one Destroyer down there, a few got sick, three died from whatever made them sick and one started to get better, but that's all we know so far until the girls go through the rest of the papers," Zandrem shouted so Koriphus could hear her.
"More than one Destroyer?" Koriphus responded in tone of surprise.
"According to the paper we just read‚ And the one down there right now was having some kind of tests done on it and they were going well, supposedly‚" Aurelia added.
A faint blue light suddenly filled the chamber, followed by a strange sound.
"Koriphus! What was
that?" Caliphar called.
"Nothing to worry about, just giving the monitor a good surge of electricity!"
"Yes! I got it running," Koriphus explained, suddenly appearing at the bottom of the stairs.
He looked up to see Aurelia, Caliphar, Roy, Zandrem and Norenia's faces looking back at him through the opening to the chamber.
"Hey, where's Vorenzar?" Koriphus asked as he made his way up the stairs to join them.
Aurelia looked around at the others and noticed Vorenzar was no longer among them.
"She was with us when we left the supply room‚ Where could she have gone?" Aurelia said looking back at Koriphus.
"I didn't see her leave but she couldn't have gone far," Zandrem said glancing up at Aurelia.
"I'll go look for her," Zandrem added before walking away.
"You guys need to come down here," Koriphus said looking at Aurelia and Caliphar.
"Ok, let's go then," Aurelia replied.
She and Caliphar followed Koriphus down the stairs to the tube containing the Destroyer.
"As you can see, I finally got the monitor working so I'm hoping it will wake up the Destroyer," Koriphus said.
Aurelia walked up to the tube holding the Destroyer; she placed her hand against the glass and stared intently at the creature's face.
The Destroyer unexpectedly opened its black eyes and stared back at Aurelia, causing her to step back in shock.
"The Destroyer is awake‚" She said which made Caliphar and Koriphus to turn and look at her.
They both turned and looked at the Destroyer in the tube, its cold black eyes staring at them.
"Holy shit‚" Caliphar muttered.
"Now that it's awake, what are we going to do about getting it out of the tube?" Koriphus asked.
"I'm not letting that thing out of there until I get a chance to learn more about it," Aurelia responded.
"Fully understandable, we can't risk letting that thing out and have it try to kill us all," Caliphar agreed.
"I'll keep an eye on it while you do research," Koriphus replied.
"Thank you Koriphus just shout if you need anything," Aurelia said glancing at the Destroyer.
"We have research to do, come on Caliphar," She said as they walked towards the stairs.
"Will you please go see if Sif and the others have found anything important?"
"I should go help Zandrem find Vorenzar," Aurelia said once they had reached the top of the stairs.
"You go ahead, I'll go help the others," Caliphar replied before heading to the supply room.
Aurelia looked around the airbase for any sign of Zandrem or Vorenzar.
Zandrem appeared from behind the back of the bus and glanced up to spot Aurelia standing near the NH-90.
"Where's Vorenzar?" Aurelia asked as she approached Zandrem.
"No idea, I just checked the base too and didn't see her anywhere," Zandrem answered, shaking her head.
"Damn it, she could be anywhere by now‚"
"We'll find her, don't worry right now,"
"I'm not worried, I'm pissed as hell that the bitch just fucking vanished right under our damn noses,"
"We will find her, Aurelia‚ Besides, it's not exactly like she can get very far with that desert crawling with wild Destroyers," Zandrem replied.
"That's supposed to make me feel better?" Aurelia responded, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Hey, Caliphar says you two need to come see something he found in one of the folders," Norenia interrupted, appearing behind Aurelia.
"See what?" Zandrem inquired.
"He just told me to get y'all," Norenia replied.
Aurelia and Zandrem glanced at each other before glancing back at Norenia.
They quickly followed Norenia into the supply room, where Sif, Royena and Soraf were going through the papers in the folders frantically.
"You really need to see this," Caliphar said as soon as he saw Aurelia and Zandrem enter the room.
"What did you find?" Aurelia asked, noticing a piece of paper in Caliphar' hand.
"Well I've got the others searching for the other pages, but this seemed the most important‚" He answered handing her the paper.
"Look at the date at the top right corner,"
Aurelia took the paper from him and glanced up at the corner of it and saw the date scribbled in the far right corner.
"What the hell? This can't be right‚"
"What's the matter?" Zandrem asked trying to look at the paper over Aurelia's shoulder.
"This is dated four years before the apocalypse happened, that's the matter," Aurelia replied showing Zandrem the paper.
"Holy crap‚" Zandrem muttered when she read the date.
"This just doesn't make any sense, how could they have been doing any of this without being noticed?" Zandrem wondered aloud, handing the paper back to Caliphar.
"They were a secretive group doing freaky experiments on Destroyers in the underground room of an abandoned airbase,"
"Something tells me they weren't exactly well known‚" Sif interjected, glancing over her shoulder at Zandrem.
"It still doesn't make sense, I mean someone had to have been funding them or else they wouldn't still be around after the apocalypse," Zandrem replied.
"I think I may know who that someone is‚ I just found a page that looks like it goes along with that one," Soraf spoke up, holding out a piece of paper to Aurelia.
Aurelia took the paper and looked at it, seeing what was stamped across the top of the page.
"Government owned, top secret‚" She read aloud looking around at the others.
"You have got to be joking‚" Caliphar said looking at her.
"Oh how I wish I was, but I'm not," She replied.
Caught in the act
"They still going through all those papers?" Caliphar asked, leaning his back against the right rear wheel of the NH-90.
"There's a lot to go through, just give them some time to sort it all out," Aurelia replied, from her spot on the steps of her bus.
She looked back down at the paper Soraf had found and continued to read it, the fur on the back of her neck sticking up on end as she reached a part of the mad scribbling that caught her attention.
"Fuck‚" She muttered suddenly looking up at Caliphar.
"What?" He inquired, looking back at her.
"This part of quick scribbling, at first I didn't understand it, but after going over it again when I remembered that page we found that talked about the other Destroyers that also used to be in the underground room,"
"It started to make sense to me, and it also means we have to get through the other papers as quickly as possible‚" She explained as she approached Caliphar to show him.
Caliphar took the paper from her and read the part she had pointed to, his eyes slowly growing wider the more he read.
"So there's some Destroyers that escaped and turned rogue‚ We have to tell Koriphus," He said once he had finished reading, handing the paper back to Aurelia.
Before they started to make their way to the opening to the underground room, they spotted Koriphus coming out of it.
"Koriphus! We have something to tell you," Aurelia exclaimed as she and Caliphar approached Koriphus.
"What's up?" Koriphus replied looking at them.
"This, it's something Soraf found with all the folders we found down there," Aurelia explained as she held up the paper.
Koriphus took the paper and began reading it.
"Great, as if the Destroyers being controlled were bad enough we have rogue ones that could still be out there God knows where by now‚"
"If they're even alive that is, of course," Caliphar added.
"If they are, I'd like to find them and kill them," Koriphus retorted.
"That's looking on the bright side," Aurelia chuckled looking between Koriphus and Caliphar.
Caliphar and Koriphus shared a look before laughing at Aurelia's statement.
"Anyway, why did you come up her
e Koriphus? I thought you were keeping an eye on the Destroyer we woke up," Aurelia continued looking up at Koriphus.