Coeus?

by Andur

  “No. And if you do so much as touch me I'll take it as an attack and retaliate with lethal force.” I inform him coolly which causes them to keep their distance.

  Then I face the secretary once more. “Care to call the manager of this enterprise? I think he wants to know that he's pissed off an entire species.”

  Okay, that's a very dramatic lie. But it never hurts to appear as a unified front to outsiders. It can't hurt us humans if the aliens think that fucking with one of us is equal to drawing the attention of the entire community. Sometimes I really like our government. They don't play a half hearted game like so many other governments in the science fiction stories I've read.

  The doggy secretary starts speaking to someone while the three security officers keep at arm's length. I try to stay calm and ignore their threatening demeanour. Maybe I should use the time for some mental exercises. So far I always tripped towards the emotional part when I lost control. Maybe tripping towards the logical part is earning me better results? I am about to pick a huge fight.

  I try imagine myself at a shore with an ocean of emotion to my left and a desert of nothingness to my right. Then I face the desert and start walking.

  My little experiment doesn't earn me an immediate result, but at least the need to fuck something is gone.

  I ponder if that in itself can be called a big achievement, or a great loss.

  Before I get an answer to my question another party arrives at the scene. Seven Zeen with much too big weapons and an eighth unarmed Zeen who doesn't look that well entered the entrance hall. Number eight took the skin-colour of exhaustion after moving too fast. Call it a wonder or not, but I learned one thing or two from Ayo.

  Speaking of the devil, wouldn't it be funny if the Zeen in front of me is indeed Ayo. “Is that you, Ayo?”

  “Yes, indeed. I am moved that you managed to discern my colour print from other members of my species.” The Zeen comes closer, gesturing for the security agents to step out of the way. “What's going on here? We received a request for aid against you from Resch.”

  It's not like I recognized him. It was a wild guess, pure and simple. I raise an inquisitive eyebrow and look back at the secretary. “Yes, that's what I expected.”

  “So, what's going on?” Ayo asks.

  “My people found convincing evidence that Resch abducted our ambassador. We want him back. In pieces or alive and Resch has-” I stop to check the time. “Fourteen minutes left to fulfil our demand or present convincing evidence against it.”

  “And what if not!?” A voice asks over the speakers right next to the secretary. “I am the manager of Resch, Resch Hibil! And I say that this insane individual has no rights to be within my facility. Zeen, I demand that you remove this individual from my station.”

  Ah, now Mr. X finally shows up. “I don't care about your inconvenience. My people came here by following a peaceful invitation. To our understanding this is neutral ground. You attacked our ambassador on the very same ground. That made your immunity and rights void. It's a declaration of war!”

  “Now, let us not go too far. You are oversimplifying things, Gideon. According to the great treaty, which is signed by every species in this system, all conflicts have to be solved peacefully.” Ayo tries to mediate, but I have no intention on listening to him.

  “That's well and nice, but the reason for conflict between us and Resch is a violent attack. And even if we would have signed that treaty, which we did not, our reaction is justified. You've a little less than five minutes left by the way.” I take another look at my wristwatch. God bless our slow negotiation tactics.

  The speaker next to the secretary starts a tirade, but Ayo's attention stays on me. “Excuse me, but I somehow failed to understand what happens at the end of your ultimatum.”

  I regard the Zeen for a while, assessing his role in this. “Well, we'll take back what's ours by using force.” I explain, but Ayo misses the point so I elaborate. “That means we'll start killing everyone within this facility until we are satisfied.”

  The someone behind the speaker chokes. “Are you insane!? Even Ramani don't react that outrageously to losing a herd-member.”

  “One minute.” I announce. “You still can admit everything, but I hope you-”

  Suddenly the four security agents jump me and I backhand the one in front of me, sending him tumbling across the entrance hall. The other three cling onto me like wrestlers, but I reach up and twist the hand around my neck. Then I ram my free hand into the speaker right next to the secretary. A relaxing wave of energy flows through me and the three guards.

  They don't find the experience as relaxing as I do and are flung away by the electricity. The lights go out and I find myself in a dim twilight. The only lighting comes from the huge entrance and the secretary's glowing eyes.

  Suddenly her jaw unhinges, revealing several rows of shark-like teeth. With a scream she jumps at me and I pull up my arm just in time to avoid being bitten in the face.

  Teeth sink into my lower arm, but it's only now that I realize the unreal situation. I can still feel the pain, but I am strangely disconnected from the feeling. Maybe my little mental experiment yielded more results than I expected?

  The secretary is pulling and ripping at my arm like it is at a newly found bone. I just look at her and study the wild expression in her puppy eyes. Then my eyes wander to my wristwatch. “I fear that the time is up.”

  From within my coat I pull the Desert Eagle imitation which somehow grew to my heart. Originally it was the toy of a genetically enhanced super soldier from Earth.

  But now it is my toy.

  Finally the secretary stops her attempts at ripping off my arm, realizing that her strategy is ineffective.

  I place the pistol on her forehead and pull the trigger. A large part of her skull simply disintegrates and with a click her jaw snaps apart. I let her body slide out of sight behind the counter and turn in a circle to deal with other dangers.

  Empty.

  The entire entrance hall somehow cleared out within seconds. From the other side of the glassed front which is making up the entrance I can see eight Zeen eyeing me suspiciously. Like children they stick to the glass to get a good view.

  What did I expect? They are talkers, not fighters. I wonder why they even showed up with those weapons? An attempt at intimidation?

  I scratch my head with the barrel of my gun and take a look at the wound. The passive regeneration spell which I cast before entering this facility is already hard at work and knitting the flesh back together.

  My eyes wander back to the wall behind the reception desk. It is covered by a huge violet splash of blood and gore with a big bullet hole in the middle.

  I've killed another puppy. I really should stick to cats and rabbits...

  Melan won't be happy about this.

  66. ~Investigation.~

  “

  If two parties fight, get out of the way.

  ”

  -Zeen wisdom

  Galactic Centre, Gathering-Station

  Gideon

  I flex the muscles in my arm and notice to my satisfaction that they work fine, so I raise my gun and put a round into the heads of the four security guards who are lying across the entrance hall. Just to be sure.

  Two faceless appear in the middle of the clear area, brought in by a hired techno-mage. Their transporter is clearly not a combatant and bails out one moment later. Get them in and get out, the faster the better.

  I wave a hand at them. “Hi, things got a little violent here, but we will proceed as planned.” I gesture at the entrance where a group of Zeen is trying to keep people out while another group is eyeing us suspiciously. “Your job is to kill anyone who decides to enter the building. But I think that the Zeen got my message.” I kick the security guard next to me.

  The both of them nod and turn to face the entrance.

  Maybe we should have sent more, but using just a few guards also sends another message. And that's that we
don't need more. Since I am among the people who will go further into the facility I contact Ed once more. “How is the situation? Have we found any evidence which allows us to proceed as planned?”

  “There is a file of a bone scan and medical data on one of their hidden servers, but we haven't found the ambassador yet. Probably he is kept in the lowest level of the facility. The systems down there are all disconnected from the rest of the station.” Ed answers via a secure connection. “The data and especially the skeleton's teeth match our man. There is even the mended bone from when he broke his leg as a child. It's fairly certain that they got the data directly from our ambassador and not through a second source.”

  Ed falls silent, but his silence doesn't reassure me. “So we proceed? We go in and get some answers?” I ask. “It's your call. You are the trained investigator.” I may as well put at least some of the blame on someone else than me if something goes wrong.

  “We proceed. I and my men teleport in at various points. You continue from the main entrance.” Ed explains.

  “Yeah.” Sure. Throw the mad techno-mage right through your enemy's front door and hope that he is madder than your enemies. Who cares about the fact that the front door is always the best defended point of a secure facility.

  I sigh and leave the two faceless behind, walking down the corridor which leads deeper into the facility.

  There are quite a few bureaus to my left and right. This level is probably occupied by the administration department. The research areas are surely deep inside the complex. My choice falls onto the first office, so I kick the door open and step inside.

  “What's going on!?”

  My eyes are drawn to the ground from where a small, furry creature is looking up to me. The huge eyes of the yellow rodent and the serrated tail remind me of something, but I fail to grasp the memory. I am sure that the striped fur should give me the last hint, but it is no use. “Where do you keep the prisoners?”

  “Who-”

  My gun roars and the furry thing goes splat, dispersing on the ground. I certainly won't waste my time with interrogating someone who talks back to me while the security staff arranges their defence.

  I make my way through a few more offices and employees who deny any knowledge of our man until the clerks catch up to what's going on. A wild panic ensues with people trying to run past me, away from me to flee the facility.

  While emptying my magazine into a few of them, the rest escapes to the entrance hall.

  My first instinct is to create a gravity anomaly to hold them back, but the two faceless in the entrance hall apparently took my instructions as nobody gets in or out.

  A torrent of flames roars down the corridor, engulfing the fleeing clerks and licking its flames into each office. I step into the office next to me and slam the door shut. A moment later the room's automatic fire-fighting-system decides to act up and drenches me in cold water while the flames try to get through the gap between the doors and walls.

  “The next time we have to talk about friendly fire.” I grumble while reloading and take a careful look outside after a few moments. The magically controlled flames retreated, leaving behind burned corpses and charred offices.

  At least the faceless know how to destroy the evidence. Not that I expected to find anything of value up here. After shooting my seventh clerk and causing a panic I was pretty sure that the people up here are just innocent fools who were used as a front to give the company a nice face for the world.

  I shrug and search the floor until I find a stairway to the next level. This feels more and more like a dungeon that has to be explored. At least the lights on this level work. Somehow I must have blown the fuse which was responsible for the office section.

  Once on the stairs I immediately notice the change of atmosphere. The previous level was definitely an office area. There was some alien strangeness to it, like the furniture, but all the vital components were there.

  Here though it looks like medical cleanliness. The rough office walls changed to polished steel or some similar material.

  The second level matches my expectations of a secret facility a little better. There are some low-grade laboratories here, but nothing extraordinary. I also notice that each level seems to have the same layout. A central spiralling corridor with rooms to the left and right and a staircase to the next level.

  My silent search of the facility is interrupted by encountering another group of blue security guards upon turning around a corner. They open fire on me with some kind of energy weapon. Only my much faster reflexes let me escape death.

  Safely out of sight I pick a set of discs from my belt and throw it around the corner. The mobile claymores sprout six legs and start skittering towards the defenders who scream and start shooting.

  Seconds later I hear the characteristic 'whomb' of the weapons and I risk another look. The M.C. is a standard weapon which is used by the faceless for fighting inside confined space.

  The charge isn't designed to cause mentionable destruction, but to send out hundreds of needles which literally perforate the victims. The nine guards who defended the corridor are still in one piece, but countless tiny holes litter their bodies.

  I take a tentative step out of my cover and walk slowly down the hallway, keeping my weapon aimed on the downed guards.

  Upon reaching the other side of the corridor I find what the guards were defending. Yet another set of stairs. I turn around and weigh my options. This level wasn't thoroughly explored, but it doesn't look like there is anything special here. So should I press forward or do a thorough search?

  The decision is taken from me by a call from Ed. “We've run into a problem down here. It would be nice if you hurry to take a little pressure off of us.”

  I eject the clip from my gun and reload a full one to be safe. “What's wrong?” Ed and his men should have teleported into the facility in several different locations. The entire area is a rough square with different levels, so we decided to attack from many places at once to stop them from sectioning off each level or trying to mount an organized defence.

  “They caught one of my teams off guard at the third level. There are some kind of elite guards down here. My team is pinned between the fourth and the sixth level. Currently we are trying to hold the fifth, but they are really tough bastards.” His voice is interrupted by an explosion. “They have big guns and good equipment. If you would be so nice to descent the central stairway and put some bullets in their backs.”

  Now I walk a little slower. I am already at the third level and can hear the muffled sounds of energy weapons. “Elite guards?”

  “Grey, three legs, three arms. Much faster and stronger than the blue scum. One of them tore one of my men apart like a toy. Kill them first and don't try to ask questions.” Ed answers agitated.

  There is fighting going on at the next level. From further down the corridor I hear gunshots and screams, but I ignore it and hurry further down the stairs. If Ed is right the faceless have it under control.

  I reach the fourth level, but find the stairway is closed off by a huge blast door. A faceless is lying on the stairway, apparently dead. Unless he found a way to survive without his head. I would call that a feat.

  It's tempting to approach the door and hack it. Especially since Ed seems to be with his back to a wall, but why aren't there any defenders here?

  With my ability at its fullest I take a step, and another. Walking through life like this is especially boring and it feels like an hour until I notice something. A slight change in the air. A wisp of sound.

  I raise my gun slightly and something knocks against it. The chakram-like weapon which was thrown at me clatters to the ground and the air in front of me shifts.

  A three legged 'thing' with a lean, muscled body emerges out of nothing and shoots at me. The energy projectile flashes forward and I apply a force spell to myself, whipping me out of the way and towards the alien.

  I was warned about their strength but retreating
back up the staircase while shooting at each other doesn't sound like a good option to me.

  I fire. Once, twice, three times and each time the grey creature with six eyes twitches out of the way, moving only as much as necessary to avoid the bullet. Then I slam into the thing, coming from above I ram both of us into the blast door, not even creating a dent. At least I have the presence of mind to hit the middle arm with the energy weapon, sending the weapon flying.

  Two strong arms grab me in a bear hug while the middle one reaches for my head. It feels like I am in a steel press, so I do the first thing which comes to mind.

  Teleport.

  But nothing happens. I attempt an attack on its mind and encounter nothing but a dark vast emptiness. Something about this creature interferes with magic! I cough and cast another spell, inverting gravity. Finally something works and the ceiling becomes the floor. Both of us fall head first, but since the alien is taller than me it impacts first.

  The thing isn't bothered by the impact as much as I would like, but its hug loosens a little and I can get a hand free. I don't even try to hit the thing. If it's strong enough to counter my magical enhanced body it has to be sturdy too. The next best thing I can think of is ramming two fingers into one of the monster's six pitch black eyes.

  It doesn't scream, which is a little disturbing. I like it when the opponent shows a reaction. So I wriggle my finger a bit and finally the thing flings me away, probably it felt inconvenienced despite showing no reaction.

  To keep it off balance I return the gravity to normal and aim my gun once more.

  In mid air the creature has no hold to use its strength and speed. One bullet slams through the creature's head, three more through its torso. Just in case that the brain is somewhere else.

  Both of us land on the ground and a horrible pain stings through my chest. Probably a broken rib. I feel for the damage but find no blood.

  At least the monster is staying down. With careful effort I get to my feet and approach the door. If Ed is right, then there are more of those things on the other side.

  Currently I don't feel like I want to take on more of those things. So I take my remaining stack of mobile claymores and teleport them to the other side of the door. After hearing the familiar sound of detonating M.C.s I reach for the control panel and hack it.