More of the little monsters scrambled out onto the highway, stumbling over the brick debris before getting sure footing and charging toward the ship. The first several dozen that had led the charge all lay dead or dying on the pavement, having been mowed down by the raiders. A few smart ones had made it to the K-rails in the center of the road and taken cover, waiting as more and more of their comrades filled in behind them. They clearly planned to zerg the ship once they had built up their numbers. The raiders all backed up the ramp into the cargo hold.
When Allistor estimated that there were maybe three hundred of the little goblins exposed, and the flow through the gap began to slow, he spoke in raid chat. “Okay Kira, lift off. Raiders, keep them interested. Gene drop your first bomb right outside the wall in ten… nine…” he counted down as the Phoenix gained altitude. Kira kept her within range of the raiders’ spells and guns until the countdown reached three. Then she quickly increased their altitude even as the bomb was falling past them. The first gutbuster impacted the road just outside the wall, knocking some of the emerging goblins back through the gap. Those outside were blasted into bits if they were at the point of impact, or crushed against the K-rail. A few were flung into the air, flying dozens of feet before landing limply.
Most of the raiders leveled up, some more than once. The kids and parents in other areas of the ship got multiple levels, and Allistor could hear the celebrations. But he had more work to do. Seeing that the Opportunity had descended considerably, he ordered. “Drop the second one, Gene. Inside the wall this time.”
Five seconds later the second gutbuster detonated, causing some of the brick on either side of the gap in the wall to bulge outward, then slowly fall into the street. Again, most of the raiders leveled up. Kira landed the Phoenix back in its same spot as Opportunity moved slightly westward and hovered.
Without waiting to be told, the orcanin scrambled down the cargo ramp and dashed inside the wall, quickly looting the goblins and gathering whatever bits they considered tasty. Allistor ordered everyone to assign their newly earned attribute points while the orcanin did their thing. He watched as eyes all around him unfocused, and a few of his people moved their hands as they navigated their interfaces.
The orcanin finished their work inside the wall, and moved through the bodies on the outside. As soon as they were clear, the leader waved at Allistor, indicating he should resume his bombardment. “Gene, the orcanin are clear. Let’s knock the place down. Start as far west as you can, just to make sure we don’t bury our friends in rubble.”
The Opportunity adjusted further westward and increased its altitude several thousand feet, then dropped the first of the bunker busters. The impact nearly caused Allistor to piss himself! The ground beneath them heaved upward, and a deafening thunder caused nearly everyone to cover their ears. Most of the orcanin and raiders stumbled, or outright fell over. A plume of ash and smoke rose into the air near the opposite end of the facility.
Just as Allistor was recovering, the second one hit. Two of the towers that rose high above the power plant swayed, then tumbled down, adding to the growing cloud of debris, and shaking the ground yet again. The orcanin decided they’d done enough gathering and returned to the Phoenix on unsteady legs, looting bodies as they passed.
After the third bomb struck, much closer to Allistor and friends this time, the last of the towers collapsed, as did the skybridge between the two largest buildings, and a good bit of the remaining brick wall.
“Gene, hold your fire.” Allistor called out. He couldn’t see much through the still-growing cloud of smoke and ash, but he doubted there was much left of anything in there. “Prime, we’re done dropping bombs for a bit. Tighten up your perimeter, and report any contact with the enemy.”
Allistor watched as the ring of battle droids, who had been waiting out near his city wall that ran along the river, began to pace inward. He waited for the breeze to clear away most of the airborne debris, leaving just the rising smoke from several fires inside. “Gralen, how does it look from up there?”
“I see nothing moving, Prince Allistor.” The beastkin observed. “No signs of life on the surface, or the visible lower areas. The last three bombs penetrated through at least three underground levels that I can see. Fires are reducing visibility.”
“Alright, let’s get in there. Hopefully there are just a few left to mop up, and we can go celebrate. Bjurstrom, no groups smaller than ten. Keep it at twenty unless we absolutely need to split up further.” Allistor stepped down off the cargo ramp along with his people. They picked their way through the goblin bits as they crossed the highway, then stepped through the much wider opening in the brick wall. The orcanin returned to finished looting and harvesting the goblins outside the wall. They had agreed to serve as a supplement lookout force, in case any goblins attempted to escape.
Allistor surveyed the destruction before him. What had once been a complex of large four and five-story buildings with several towers was now a sea of rubble and craters, twisted metal and broken pipes. Not a single living thing moved, only the flickering of fires and billowing smoke catching his attention. The acrid smell of scorched stone, metal, and plastic burned his nostrils and irritated his eyes, making them water. While he waited for his raiders to pick their way through the rubble behind him, he looked for an obvious route underground. Not finding one, he moved forward toward the nearest crater. Standing back a couple feet from the edge, he could see down into the lower levels. The bomb that struck there had penetrated down to the third subterranean level, blasting open concrete tunnels, pipes, and power conduits.
The slope down along the side of the crater was steep, and filled with debris. There was no way the raiders could descend there without ropes, and only one or two would be able to go down at a time. “Prime, can you mark where your scouts have found entrances on my map?” He looked to the android general standing just behind him. A moment later seven red dots appeared on his interface. All but one of them were now covered in rubble. The last was on the far side of the complex. Allistor compared his position, the dot on the map, and what he could see with his own eyes in front of him, and decided the entry point was a small ten by ten foot concrete building.
Pointing at the structure, he said, “Looks like that’s our best way in, now. We just have to get there.” Not wanting to risk crossing the center of the rubble field and having the ground collapsing underneath them, he set off to his left along the facility’s perimeter wall. The damage was less severe further from the center, and the path wasn’t quiet as littered with debris. The others followed behind, all of them keeping watch for any sign of movement.
It took ten minutes to pick their way around to the structure. Allistor found it mostly intact, with the concrete walls only cracked, not broken. The metal entry door stood open, and the room inside was partially visible in the daylight. There wasn’t much to it. A rack along one wall for hard hats, all of which now lay on the floor. A pallet of six-inch copper pipes on the floor near the opposite wall. And in the center of the room, a concrete stairway leading downward.
Behind him, McCoy commented. “Well, this isn’t exactly like every scary movie ever. No sir.” He paused while a few people chuckled. “If I was in the movie theater watching this, I’d be shouting at the hero not to go down into the dark, smelly hole.”
Somewhere near the back, Goodrich accommodated him, calling out, “Don’t go down there, dumbass! Something’s gonna eat your face!” This time the chuckles sounded more nervous than amused. McCoy raised a finger high in the air so his pal could see it.
“Yep. This is a horrible idea.” Allistor agreed, quietly enough that only those closest to him could hear. He really was concerned about the level of mobs they’d find down in this hole.
“Nothing to it but to do it, right?” He took a deep breath, cast Barrier in front of himself, and cast a light globe down about ten feet in front of him. “Here we go.”
The stairway extended straight down for abo
ut fifteen feet to a concrete landing, then proceeded further at a ninety degree angle to the right. Fifteen more feet below the surface, the stairwell opened into a large room filled with machinery and thick pipes. The ceiling stretched out 20 feet above their heads, and the room was at least a hundred feet wide, and many times that distance long. The far wall was visible because one of the bombs had crashed through the room near the other end and left the ceiling open. Allistor pushed his light globe further out ahead of him as half a dozen others cast theirs and sent them out in different directions. It was soon apparent that there were three long aisles running between the pipes and machines that stretched forward across the room.
Bjurstrom took over, assigning teams of twenty to break off left and right to proceed forward, moving parallel with the main group. Allistor maintained the lead in the center aisle, his Barrier still active in front of him. Fuzzy walked next to him, the bear’s nose going crazy as he sniffed at everything they passed.
About halfway across the room, Fuzzy paused, raised his nose as high as he could, then growled. Everyone froze, and Bjurstrom whispered into raid chat. The raiders had all learned to trust the bear’s nose. From across the open crater ahead of them, they heard the screech of metal on metal, and one half of a double metal door opened. The sunlight revealed a figure standing there, its head pushed forward as it seemed to be scenting the air just like Fuzzy. The figure was tall and thin, at least three times the height of a goblin. Two arms, two legs, with humanoid proportions except for unusually long arms. Allistor quickly cast Identify.
Fomorian Guard
Level 47
Health: 60,000/60,000
Fuzzy growled quietly from deep in his chest. The hairs on his back bristled and he lowered his head, ears flat. Logan whispered, “Well shit, that ain’t no goblin.”
The creature’s head whipped toward them, and it let out a high-pitched wail before stepping back and slamming the screeching door shut again.
McCoy’s voice was barely more than a whisper when he added, “And now they know where we are, and which way we’re coming.”
The groups all advanced as far as the crater, not finding anything alive to challenge them. The crater was too wide for most of them to jump across at that point, but it was possible to drop down the fifteen feet or so to the level below. For Allistor, that drop was nothing. His improved Strength would allow him to absorb the impact from that landing with ease. But that was not the case for all of his people.
Prime solved the problem for him. The droid stepped off the edge, his hydraulic legs barely bending when he landed. Looking up, he said, “I will catch each of you.”
Logan volunteered to go first. As the largest man in the group, he weighed more than anyone but Fuzzy. He hopped off the edge, holding his breath until Prime’s four arms easily caught him, placing him back on his feet. After that the others jumped down one by one until it was just Allistor and Fuzzy. The bear had kept stepping back further from the edge, clearly not willing to jump. It reminded Allistor of the day they’d met, when the cub had been stuck on a ledge in the middle of a waterfall. Then he recalled that he’d caused the cub to fall off, bounce off some rocks, and plunge unconscious into the water below.
“Yeah, I’m sorry buddy. I guess you don’t have fond memories of stuff like this. Hold still, and I’ll Levitate you, then you can just drift down.” Fuzzy growled and backed up, shaking his head. “What, you don’t trust me?” Allistor was slightly offended, but he put his mind to trying to find an argument that might convince his several-hundred pound cub to just jump. Instead, an idea struck him. Removing a rope from his ring, he showed it to the bear. “You don’t have to jump, buddy. Well, not far. You grab hold of this, and just step off, and I’ll lower you down.”
Fuzzy looked at him like he was insane.
“C’mon Fuzzster! I’m strong enough to do this, even with you as chunky as you’ve become! We really need to cut down on your snacks.” Now Fuzzy was afraid and offended, shaking his head no and glaring at his human.
“Look, remember tug of war?” Allistor and the cub had played it quite often when Fuzzy was much smaller. He tied a knot in one end of the rope and held it out. “Here, Fuzzy. You take hold and pull. C’mon, you remember this game.”
Fuzzy took a few hesitant steps forward, then took hold of the rope just above the knot.
“Okay, now tug! C’mon… pull!” Allistor dropped most of the length of rope on the floor and took hold about four feet from the bear’s snout. He leaned back and put his weight into it, just as if he were the anchor in a tug of war contest. Feeling the pull, Fuzzy naturally growled and tugged back, digging his feet in and clenching tighter on the rope.
“That’s right! Who’s a badass rope-tuggin bear? You are!” Allistor moved his grip up on the rope until it was just half a foot from Fuzzy’s jaws. Planting his feet, he lifted up on the rope with all the strength in his legs, back, and arms. Fuzzy’s front feet lifted in the air as he growled a challenge. His massive neck muscles shook the rope back and forth. While he was distracted, Allistor cast Levitate on him, then tugged the rope gently even as his cub squealed in surprise and fear. The moment Fuzzy was out past the edge of the hole, he pushed down gently, and his squirming, bawling cub, drifted down to the floor below. When he made contact with the floor, Allistor cancelled the spell. He quickly gathered up the rope, put it back in his ring, and called out “Geronimo!” before leaping over the edge himself.
A second later, Prime caught him and set him on his feet. A second after that, Fuzzy swatted those feet out from under him with one massive paw, causing him to fall and clunk his head on the concrete. The bear turned his butt toward his human and stomped away toward the back of the group, throwing Allistor a dirty look over one shoulder. Nobody said a word, and Allistor rubbed his head, getting to his feet again with Prime’s assistance.
When she was sure he was okay, Amanda burst out giggling. A moment later, several of the others quit holding back, and joined her. She managed to say, “Guess we know who’s really boss around here.” before another laugh got her coughing.
None of them had remembered to send their light globes down, and now they were all out of sight. So they cancelled the spell and recast it, the lights moving down the tunnel ahead of them. They were now walking back in the direction that they had come in the room above, hoping to find an intact stair leading further down.
“Anybody ever heard of a Fomorian?” Allistor asked. He didn’t recall the term from any of his games, but something tickled at the back of his memory.
Goodrich spoke up. “My gran used to tell this fairy tale about them when I was little. Some kind of fae monsters that lived underground. She used to say they’d come and steal the eldest child of a family if they misbehaved. I was the eldest.” He paused to shake his head. “That’s about all I remember.”
Prime spoke up next. “Fomorians are an elder race. Long-lived, though not with the lifespan of elves. They do prefer to live underground, as their eyes do not work well in daylight or brightly lit areas. They possess formidable physical strength, and can move nearly silently. Most are able to cast spells, mainly earth magic and dark magic.”
“Thank you, Prime. I think.” Allistor said. Turning to look behind at the others following along, he asked, “Everybody get that?” He saw heads nodding all along the column of raiders.
A minute later the light globes drifting ahead of them illuminated a stairwell door. Stationing a group of twenty to watch that door, they continued down to the end of the tunnel. There were a few offices on either side, which were quickly cleared without incident. At the end, there was a control room of some kind, with several workstations, large monitors mounted on the far wall, and a bank of servers behind glass to one side. With no power, it was all just dead metal and plastic. They checked the room for any hidden goblins or other mobs, then returned to the stairwell, and prepared to head further down.
Chapter 11
Logan opened the stairwe
ll door for Allistor, who stood in front of it with his Barrier shield cast in front of him. This was becoming standard procedure for breaching doors during raids. Allistor immediately pushed his light globe into the stairwell, but once it crossed the threshold, it simply disappeared.
“What the…” Allistor stared into the unnatural darkness in front of him. Suddenly panicked, he cast Flame Shot in the form of a fireball through the doorway. It too disappeared, though he could hear its impact a second later.
“Dark Magic.” Prime observed. “Please, allow me. My sensors operate on several light frequencies.” Allistor stepped aside, allowing Prime to move past him and through the doorway, one of his four arms holding his shield, the other his staff. To the watching humans, and grizzly cub, he just disappeared into a void. “This level and the stairs within sight are clear.” He reported aloud.
Allistor reached one hand into the darkness. It felt cold, but not painfully so. He quickly checked his interface for any sign of a debuff, and found none.
“Fuzzy, you smell anything?” he looked down at the bear standing next to him. Fuzzy just shook his head.
“Alright… we move through the dark. Prime, you lead, reach out one of your hands so I can take it. Logan, hand on my shoulder. Michael, you and a couple tanks next in line with shields ready, then a couple healers. The rest of you hold here until we figure this out. It has to be some kind of trap, or ambush, and I won’t bring our whole group into it. I want two more tanks and some dps watching our backs, in case something drops down through the crater from above like we just did.”
He took a deep breath and took hold of Prime’s hand when it emerged from the darkness. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and a moment later Amanda’s voice from behind him said, “Ready.”
Allistor stepped forward, Prime leading him, and the others following. It was clumsy and slow, but eventually they made it down the first flight of stairs, across the landing, and down a switchback flight to the level below. The darkness continued to permeate the space, and the chill on Allistor’s skin was increasing.
Shadow Sun Progression: Shadow Sun Book Four Page 17