by Tyson Jordan
Before leaving, I noticed a rectangular strip of polymer hanging from the guard’s belt, striped with black on one side. We recognised the keycard when we saw it, and found its use in the nearest quick shaft. The simple symbols written on the myriad floor numbers revealed further office spaces below, but after a moment of discussion, we thought it best to visit the laboratories used for pharmacological developments.
The doors closed and we began our descent.
29
It All Goes Wrong
I looked at Janus, taking notice as he rubbed the prongs of his ears gingerly, and he gave a half-hearted smile. The firearm, an older projectile weapon, had gone off close to his head, and I grimaced at the thought of the incident, feeling frustrated at our immediate carelessness. Argenta remained speechless, giving off waves of disappointment. I focused on my breathing, forcing my lungs to follow a slow and steady rhythm, and Janus whispered, “You doing all right?” I nodded slowly, but unconvincingly.
The doors swung wide and we stepped into our destination. It was a pharmacological research and development laboratory, made clear by the wide array of chemical apparatus and research terminals neatly organised across the chamber.
The room was portioned into neat, purposeful compartments, each serving a different purpose from the one that came before it. We were immediately aware that this was only one laboratory in a series of such laboratories, and investigating them all would take a substantial amount of time.
As expected, it was deserted, and there was no noise beyond that of our own footsteps and the flickering of computer terminals left to process their vast stores of data from the day before. We moved silently, not knowing entirely what to look for, until a yellow tinge of light caught my eye.
I broke off from our group and hurried towards the unnatural glow. It had an unsettling quality that stood apart from the dim sterility of the facility’s remainder. Moving quickly into the light, I noticed that it was intensifying, until I came upon what had to be our target.
It was a long series of tall vials, labeled systematically, that were filled with bright yellow liquid. Each vial was incandescent, and gave off its own light that pooled with the others. Janus and Argenta soon approached the table, and I stared at it intently.
“What the hell is it?” I murmured.
Argenta was quick to reply, “We will know soon enough,” as she grasped one of the vials tightly. Janus took one as well, and his curiosity seized him. He unscrewed the circular black lid and wafted a few vapours towards his nose.
“Holy hell, this stuff reeks!” He snapped the lid back on immediately, and the air was filled with a pungent and lingering sweetness that burned its way into our lungs. I coughed, nearly reeling from the small sample, and waved away the fumes hurriedly.
“There’s something … something wrong with it. Something is just wrong,” Janus said, staring deeply into the tube. We had seen this same yellow before in the Teem, in the algae that had been delivered so many times before.
“Judging from the quantity here, this is undoubtedly involved in the production of Mirakind algae and even other pharmaceuticals,” Argenta began, and her eyes locked suddenly onto something far behind us.
“Conveniently for us, it would seem that the Malinvicta have found their presence on Grand Ocean.” I tensed, and instinctively found the hilt of my sword.
They stood not far from us, the three of them, but it was immediately apparent that they were not like the panicked Erdeson we had seen before. With blank expressions on their faces, they did not move and did not speak. They stared at us accusingly, their eyes open wide and mouths pursed shut. The memory of Ferric’s teachings came to me and my grip on Demonbite tightened as I unsheathed my sword, holding it before me in an effort to stifle my fear.
“They’re dogs. Alphas.” My statement was firm. The singing of interlocking metal plates filled the air, and I found reassurance in the armour and its promise of power.
“Can you speak, guys? Do you recognise this, at least?” Janus laughed, pointing out the Guild Emblem that hung from his neck. The Ocean Dwellers before us began to advance, and soon broke into a silent run.
Each of them let out a piercing scream as they came for us, and I gritted my teeth. This is it, this is what you’ve trained for, be ready …
The Alphas burst forth from the chests of the Ocean Dwellers, leaving black plumes of smoke and sulphur in their wake. Their hosts fell to the floor clumsily, unconscious. These were not the same as the emaciated canine I had faced before; these wolves were hulking, snarling brutes that gnashed their teeth eagerly. They had been hunting and feeding, and for far too long.
One sprang up onto the table next to us, sending a terminal skittering over the edge and smashing violently on the floor. I drew in a sharp breath and locked eyes with the beast; like its brethren, it was always hungry, always bloodthirsty, and that intent was obvious in the runny, misshapen pools of its eyes.
You can do this, Zircon. Fear them no longer, for they have no power over you. From deep within, I heard the slow, patient voice of Innatus, and I found some relief in the old one’s words.
The Alpha leapt for me in reckless greed, and my muscles responded; I was quick to sidestep the monster. The floor shuddered with its impact, confronting me with the sheer size of my opponent. Hunched over as he was, the wolf stood almost at the height of my chest, and I tightened my grip. He turned, scrabbling madly on the smooth surface beneath him, and in my mind I could feel the impossible horror of Erasure breaking through.
I readied Demonbite , heaving it high above my head, and for but a single moment the burning and screaming of Erasure intensified as I saw the face of my father. I cried out in anger and brought the sword down in a vicious arc. It cleaved deeply into the Alpha’s head, rending the thick hide and bone beneath it, leaving the blade fixed neatly between its eyes. It shuddered and coughed once before slumping to the floor and dying.
Planting my foot on its lifeless form, I prised upwards on my sword and jerked Demonbite free. It had been saturated with black, viscous blood, and I breathed out through gritted teeth, struggling to stem the tide of my revulsion. I saw Janus and Argenta at opposite ends of the hall, each one stalked by another of the Alphas.
Janus was backing away slowly, holding his dagger before him tightly but nonetheless smirking. I ran towards him, staring in fear at the long and lanky Malinvictus that stalked him slowly and more intelligently than my earlier foe. For every step he took towards the Ocean Dweller, my friend took one back. They were moving towards a corner, and I quickened my pace, hoping to reach them in time.
I was soon confronted by the blatant truth that Janus did not need my help. He reached the corner and the Alpha lunged forth, only be to blasted back by an exploding wall. Fragments of concrete sprayed through the air, chased by blasting, unforgiving steam that scalded and scorched the monster, filling its mouth and its lungs. It lay before my friend, pinned by the unforgiving water that soon snuffed out the beast’s life.
“Water was the first thing I saw when I came in here.” Janus thumbed over his shoulder, pointing at the exposed, ruptured pipes. The steam soon subsided, and I breathed a sigh of relief. We turned and made our way to Argenta, who had resumed her investigation as if nothing had happened.
“It should go without saying that we have found something significant in this place, and in this substance.” The red Sentry before us relinquished her thermokinetic mail, assured that there was no further danger. Janus followed suit, cracking his neck from side to side as the scale mail vanished. After a moment of hesitation, I did the same.
“I believe that we have found only a little of what this place has to offer.” Argenta’s voice was suggestive.
Janus replied, “Yeah, I’m with you on that. God, what is this yellow stuff?”
My eyes drifted to the corpse splayed out on the floor. It was the Alpha that Argenta had killed, and it was a svelte predator. There was a single clean puncture in its che
st from which blood slowly seeped out, pooling on the floor and around our feet. Its eyes had turned up during the last moments of its life, and it stared at me, unmoving and unfeeling. My stomach began to turn, but not with the same intensity it had so long ago in the Guild. My eyes met those of my comrades.
“We have to destroy this place,” I said, and readied my chronopatch. We had left the bomb near the quick shaft, and I readied myself to retrieve it. Argenta caught my wrist in an instant and glowered at me.
“What are you doing?” Her words were as precise as they were aggravating. I shrugged off her grip.
“They’re here! Who knows how many more of them we’ll find? We have to destroy them! Now!” There was quavering anger in my voice, and Argenta stared at me in bemusement and condescension. I clenched my fists and neither of us wavered.
“Not yet.” A raspy voice broke through the tension.
“What?” My anger was quickly replaced by confusion. I stared at Janus.
“Not yet. We don’t know what they’re doing.” Janus repeated himself with a firm, even voice.
“We have a sample—” My argument was interrupted.
“It is a sample that we cannot analyse ourselves, and there may be further evidence of their doings on this planet.” Argenta rejoined the conversation, and it was clear that I would not win. Out of stubbornness, I pursued it all the same.
“Janus, you can’t possibly be siding with—”
“I am, Zircon. She’s right. Let’s move on. We can blow this place to hell and back later, but that sets us back as much as it does them.”
Argenta and Janus turned from me, unwilling to pursue the argument any further. I seethed from this betrayal, knowing that I had been ignored, but followed all the same. We stepped into the elevator and made our way to the lowest level.
30
Run
The doors of the quick shaft slid open, revealing nothing before us. We peered into the darkness. There was enough light from the hallway to reveal the edge of a corroded, twisted floor. Failed electrical systems hung from the ceiling, victimised by the oppression of the Malinvicta. We stepped through one at a time, and breathed in a foul, musty air that stung my eyes. The floor had been coated with a thin film of water, left long standing from the rusty, useless pipes that now ran along the walls.
“This … this is the same as the specimen lab, isn’t it?” Janus asked, and I nodded. Argenta drew Engeltrane without any hesitation, slowly and carefully so as to keep the blade from ringing. The sword shimmered somewhat in the dark, offering little comfort in its pale white light.
“This is not the same as the specimen laboratory. This is far worse. The Malinvicta here have been free for too long and feeding for too long. We have no safety measures to rely upon here. Ready yourselves.” The red Sentry before us was terse, and I thought I heard a moment of doubt in her voice. We followed into the dark.
“Can’t we do something about the lights?” Janus whispered, and I recognised some risk in it.
Argenta replied, “Some of the pipes still function, and carry heat with them. I could draw from it, but we would make ourselves more visible.”
“If there are Alphas down here, which I’m guessing there are, then they already know we’re here. They’re nearly blind, you know. It’s the sense of smell that leads them to us.”
My lessons in extraplanar biology were proving more effective by the moment, and after a moment of consideration, Argenta replied simply, “Agreed.”
She reached out slowly and inhaled deeply, concentrating on the water, which carried heat throughout the building. I could not see the Waves as she could, but I could tell that gathering them was a very different matter from the electricity that I struggled to command. There was no strain or dominance in her face. There was only passivity, marred by a flickering passion in her eyes that grew as she brought her hands together, clasped them, and revealed a small yellow ember that lit our way, sustained by her Feeling.
We made our way down the eerie halls, clutching our weapons. My muscles seized with every footstep that grated on the rusty floor, and on more than one occasion I thought I could hear the echoes of deranged growling. Calm yourself; it’s just your nerves. Janus was quick to intervene, and out of gratitude, I tried to smile.
We rounded one last corner and stopped dead in our tracks. There were no other pathways to take and no other bleak rooms to explore. There was only the pit, a massive and black hole that stretched down into the earth, with no bottom in sight. The entire floor of the hall had collapsed into blackness, and the walls themselves had begun to peel away from the foundation of the tower, falling into ruin and affliction.
“End of the line, huh?” Janus leaned forward, peering into the darkness.
“Judging from our location, it would seem that the foundation is below, and not much further.” Argenta followed suit, and noted that the walls of the chasm were not a sheer drop but a steep incline, one that could be climbed.
“We’re going in, aren’t we?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“We have no other options,” the red-clad warrior affirmed.
“What do you think made this? This is different, isn’t it? Alphas couldn’t dig this. There’s no way,” my friend murmured to himself.
I answered, “You’re right about that. I think …” I began to speak, but my voice trembled. “I think it’s a Gamma.”
The three of us hesitated for a moment. The stories of the tunnelling Gamma-class Malinvicta and the havoc they wreaked on the battlefield were terrifying. They were monsters like no other, clad in impenetrable shells and bearing a crushing, brutal strength that could not be matched.
“It certainly could be a Gamma, but we will not know until we investigate further. We have our responsibility, our reason for being here, and we must remember that now.” Argenta spoke as she leaned over the edge, dropping small orange embers into the blackness. They reached the bottom of the pit surprisingly soon and, thankfully, it was not as deep as it first seemed.
She slid down the steep slope, leaning back and clinging to its surface before soon reaching the bottom. We followed suit, and pressed on.
The walls of the tunnel had taken on an earthen quality, rusted and twisted to a new extreme. Our footsteps crackled loudly as the corrupted flooring gave way beneath us. Ahead, the tunnel widened into an entryway that glowed with an ominous yellow light, and my thoughts snapped back to the pharmaceutical lab.
The growling returned, but it was not the faint echo that I had heard before. It was a clear sound now, originating from beyond the doorway. I squeezed the haft of Demonbite tightly, holding it close to my side, and we moved into the light.
We stood at the tower’s root, its many girders and beams terminating in blocks of rigid and unyielding concrete. The network was vast, serving as the support for the rest of the structure, and the overpowering stench of death hung in the air.
The mixed corpses of Erdechildren, some more complete than others, littered the room. They were many, some covered with fresh red while others were stained with old brown, and I snarled in revolted outrage. Their faces had all been contorted into lasting horror, and their innards were eaten, leaving ragged caverns behind. My grip on my sword tightened further.
The growling returned, and in the centre of the chamber I could see them. They were Alphas, smaller than the last but well fed and healthy, lunging for one another in aggression. There were scraps to be had, an unbroken femur among them, and I bared my teeth. My breath quickened and my eyes widened in fury. I stepped forward, hefting the great sword over my shoulder.
Letting anger take over, I broke into a run and made my presence known. Argenta and Janus followed close behind, and as I closed the distance I began to notice the strangeness of the wolves in the dim light.
They were too small to be ordinary Alphas, and too weak despite their constant, sickening hunger. Even as the three of us bore down on them, there was no response of aggression or even fear.
Some began to bark, while others let out a demented whine, crying out for assistance. My footsteps slowed as rationality took the place of my rage.
“No, no, this isn’t right! Those aren’t Alphas, they’re Betas! Scavengers!” I stopped dead, and began to back away slowly. They began to growl again, this time in my direction, and with a sick satisfaction driving them. One skittered toward me on too many limbs, revealing an oblong face, rectangular teeth, and sunken black eyes.
“They must be exterminated, regardless of their classification.”
Argenta did not slow down, and I swore at her, “No, goddamn you! These things scavenge the kills of something bigger! What do you think that is?”
We soon received our answer as the floor began to quake and shatter under immense, burrowing pressure. I stepped back slowly, and the Betas made way for their leader that emerged from the ground, letting slabs of concrete fall away from its green, dusty form.
The monster before us was immense, standing nearly twice as tall as I did. It was a Malinvictus tortoise, covered with thick mottled plates. Its grey face was a terror. Two misshapen blue-white eyes were set into a bulbous, deformed head that fell into a mess of long thick tendrils. Its four long arms terminated in long shovels, still fresh with dust and debris from its work. It was a Gamma.
The creature began to walk toward us, taking slow, plodding steps that broke the concrete beneath it. Its servants stayed well away from it, content to let the Gamma do their hunting for them. The tortoise rose up, revealing its muddy brown underbelly, and roared. We were paralysed with fear by the sound, a low and thunderous cry that sent flecks of the beast’s thick saliva flying into the air.
Janus yelled, “Okay, now we can blow this place up!” I nodded in stark agreement, and readied my chronopatch, hastily sending the signal to the Destrier for retrieval, but I acted too slowly. One of the Betas, a pallid thing with seven legs and translucent skin, charged at me, spewing its caustic breath into the air. I leapt back from the green mucous and heard it sizzle behind me. I wrongfully assumed that it contacted the rocky floor, but the smell of rapidly oxidising polymer filled my nostrils, and I tore the bomb from my back, horrified.