Guardians (Æthyrium Rising - Guardians Book 1)

by Zachariah Dracoulis

  I really needed a drink.

  Bit of Quiet Thought

  I rolled over lazily and looked up at the night sky. Mouse had found a nice spot, a small clearing less than two klicks from my crash site with just enough tree coverage to hide us from the prying eyes above. I’d only slept an hour, probably had something to do with the fact that over the past however long, I’d only been up and about for less than an hour, but it hadn’t really felt like sleep.

  I stopped thinking about how much I craved some real sleep for a while, and instead focussed on the Commonwealth Heavy Destroyer orbiting a little close for comfort. I figured they were probably tossing up whether or not to come down for their friends.

  But why were they there in the first place? That’s what my self-ordered secondary objective was, to find the answer to that burning question before they could do it.

  My primary seemed a lot simpler though, get aboard the crashed Heavy Destroyer that was maybe an hours hard march from where we were sleeping, and clear it out before they could salvage enough parts from the first one’s wreckage, which had somehow managed to get thrown a few thousand kilometres east of us after being destroyed in high orbit.

  I smiled at that fact. I destroyed it. Me, the Kaltjarnan girl who’s city had been taken from her had got that small bit of revenge. I knew it wasn’t enough, and that I wouldn’t feel done until I nuked a Commonwealth city personally, but it was a start.

  Those few seconds of happy thoughts were all that was needed to make my eyelids droop and, before long, I was rolling over and getting ready for some real sleep.

  Turns out Mk. I Raethir armour doesn’t like that so much.

  Mouse’s Secret

  A few hours passed by and I guessed that I was about to enter my REM cycle, that was the only real reason I could think of that would make the suit freak out like it did. An alarm blared in my ears and, before I could really wake up, I was pricked by half a dozen needles all over my body.

  I shot up, “What the Hell!?” I shouted as I pat myself down looking for the bees that I thought had stung me.

  “Yeah… Morning Frey.” Tyr said with a yawn while Mouse sat cross-legged beside him, neither of them wearing their helmets.

  I pushed the button behind my ear and breathed in some fresh air before continuing on, “What in the Hells just happened to me!?”

  Mouse looked at me serenely, “Well, you died.” she said with a giggle.

  My brow furrowed as I waited for the explanation that never came, “What do you mean I died? I don’t feel dea- wait… Am I dead no-? No! No I’m not dead! What are you talking about?” I didn’t know why, but for some reason words seemed to be escaping faster than my brain could form them.

  But Mouse just went on smiling, “The suit, must be some kind of glitch, but when you relax, or your heartbeat falters too much, it assumes you’re dead and… well…”

  “Well fucking what!?” I snapped.

  “You may want to sit down, the adrenaline will kick in soon.” she said calmly before staring off into the distance.

  “Why is she so chill? And why are you yawning? I feel like I’m about to tear out of this thing!”

  It took Tyr a moment to realise I was talking to him between yawns, “Oh, me? Mouse managed to wake me up before my heart rate dropped, and she… you really probably should sit down.”

  I scoffed coarsely and fell back into a seated position without speaking.

  Tyr bit his lip as he tried to hide what he was going to say next, “Turns out that our cute, adorable, lovely, sweet-

  “Enough with the synonyms!” I barked.

  “Alright, alright,” he said, failing to calm me with his raised palms, “turns out that she has a bit of a… problem. A weakness for…”

  “It’s okay Tyr,” Mouse said placidly, “I’ll tell her. I really, really, really quite like adrenaline.”

  All the abrasiveness in me vanished and was instantly replaced with curiosity, “Pardon?”

  “I. Like. Adrenaline.” she said as if were like enjoying a specific food or colour, “It started a few years ago when I had trouble focussing at school. It was all stuff I already knew, so I started falling asleep in class. I was really worried dad was going to find out, but then someone in my trigonometry class hooked me up with someone, and now-”

  “You’re a junkie.” I said venomously.

  Instead of getting offended she gave me a sort of half nod, “I suppose you could say that, though I needn’t have it constantly. It’s just… It’s sort of like soft drink or candy. You don’t have to have it, but when you do, you don’t exactly complain.”

  I wanted to hiss and snap about how she was making terrible life choices and ruining herself, but at the same time I wanted to run, I needed to run. I got to my feet and that’s when I heard something coming through the trees just behind me.

  In an instant my pistol was up, “Incoming!” I bellowed.

  The sound of the other two scrambling to their feet and activating their helmets coincided with the sound of metal breaking through branches.

  “Multiple hostiles!” I shouted as I targeted the nearest of the chimp-like Androids that came swinging out of the trees, putting it down with three quick shots to the chest cavity.

  “What the fuck are they!?” Tyr yelled over the gunfire.

  “Some kind of drone! Keep firing!”

  There were too many of them though, and the ones we put down looked to be getting back up, their arms converting into laser weapons that started targeting us.

  “Omega!” ‘Again with the Omega?’ I asked myself before finishing my order, “Fall back into the forest!” there was a bang right next to my head, followed by the tell-tale thoonk of an under-mounted grenade launcher being fired which led to another thunderous bang and the splintering of wood.

  “Are you trying to deafen me Mouse!? Move, move, move!” I roared as we ran into the forest, lasers flying past my cheek so close that I could feel them lightly burning me. Automatically, I tapped my chin to my chest and let out a relieved breath at the sudden safety I had as the helmet immediately wrapped around me.

  “Where did they come from!?” Tyr shouted as we ran.

  Either Mouse hadn’t heard him, or neither of us knew how to answer. Whichever it was I didn’t care, it was something that we could focus on later.

  We continued running for a solid ten minutes before I noticed another clearing just ahead, we’d be sitting ducks if we were out in the open again when the Androids had their guns out.

  “Omega!” I thundered over the comms, “About-turn and hold!”

  In perfect synchronicity we’d all spun on our heels and were at a knee, our guns held high.

  “Mouse! Light that tree line! Tyr, pick your targets as they come… FIRE!”

  There were bullets flying everywhere, grenades and plasma bolts, another thing to add to the list of shit that needed to be explained, tearing through the lower branches of the trees, hitting the tops and lighting fires that quickly spread.

  I chanced a look at my team, both of them roaring at the enemy, the fear obvious from their stance, but I’d given orders and they would hold their ground to their dying breaths. In the briefest moment of egotism, I smiled and continued to fire at the enemy, lobbing all but one of my grenades at them until they stopped coming.

  But I wasn’t taking my eyes off the tree line yet, “Cease fire! Sound off!”

  “Clear!” Tyr said after a quick scan, neither of us relaxed our aim though.

  “Clear!” Mouse shouted after she was absolutely certain that there wasn’t a thing left in the burning forest ahead of us.

  All of us relaxed and I nodded approvingly at the others, “I think that went well.”

  Tyr fell on his arse and deactivated his helmet, “Yeah, wasn’t bad.” he said between pants, “You think we earned a break?”

  I went to answer affirmatively but Mouse shook her head, “The way this forest’s burning? We have to keep moving guys.”
/>
  Tyr rolled his neck and groaned before reactivating his helmet and clambering to his feet, “Fine, but if we get attacked by monkey robots again Imma just accept my fate.”

  I laughed, “You know what? Me too. Do you guys think we should move for the Destroyer?”

  Mouse shook her head again, “That’s back-tracking, did you see where they were coming from?”

  It took me a second longer than it probably should’ve, “Oh… Do you think they sent them?”

  “No, not even the Federation have this tech yet.” she said as she walked over to and crouched down next to the least destroyed one she could find and made a sound of curiosity, “What’s ‘XEC’?”

  The XEC

  “I don’t know,” I growled, “Xylophone Enthusiasts Club? Stop asking and watch the trees.”

  I wanted to know too, I really did, but we were in Gods knows where, fighting Gods’ knows what without even the slightest bit of support. I didn’t want to say it to the others, but I had the strongest feeling that we were screwed.

  “Xeon Egg Creators?” Tyr suggested.

  “Just watch the Goddamn trees! I don’t care if it’s Xenophile Education Class, I just want to finish the mission and get off this damned rock.”

  I heard Tyr and Mouse stop, “What are you talking about Freyja? What bloody mission? Have you even considered the possibility that we’re not getting out of here alive?”

  “Tyr…” Mouse pleaded.

  “No Mouse, I’m done. What in the Hells are we looking for? I’m done following your orders until you can tell me exactly what it is that we’re doing, ‘cause from where I’m standing it looks like all we’re doing is running from the fire and into the frying pan. And don’t you dare correct me, because I’m not in the mood!”

  “How many times do I have to say it Tyr? I. Don’t. Know. I don’t know who or what the XEC is, I don’t know where we are, and I sure as Hell don’t know what we’re going to do. But until I get orders saying otherwise, I’m marching in that direction until my feet bleed or a giant flying robot eats my face, you got it?”

  “Guys..?” Mouse peeped.

  “If you have another suggestion for what the XEC is I swear to-”

  She shook her head, “No, look.” she said, pointing in the direction we were going to something between the tree line.

  I spun around, pulling out my sidearm and ready to start putting down robo-monkeys, but stopped when I saw what she was talking about.

  “Woah… Is that a facility?” I said as I looked at the pieces of grey wall poking out above the trees just ahead of us.

  Mouse nodded, “I think so, that’s what it looks like anyway. What do you think Tyr?”

  “Yeah,” Tyr replied as we started walking toward it, “it’s definitely not civilian, that’s for sure. But what would the military be doing out here? Other than making death machines and letting them loose in the forest of course.”

  “I don’t think the monkeys were what they were developing here Tyr, I think they were what was defending this place.”

  The thought that maybe what we’d fought wasn’t actually anything other than a defence system made me more than a little uneasy, but we still pressed forward.

  “Do you think this is what Nicholas was talking about?” Tyr asked the group, “Could this be what we’re meant to be defending?”

  I shook my head as we finally broke through the trees and found ourselves on what appeared to be one giant concrete slab that had been put on top of the ground, “He never said defend Tyr, he said to make sure that it didn’t fall into the Commonwealth’s hands.”

  The structure was a good four storeys tall, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that it went even deeper into the ground. ‘XEC’ was printed on the side in big, black letters, and, as far as I could see, there wasn’t a single window on the entire thing.

  “Wait…” Tyr said, stopping in his tracks, “Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”

  “If you think that I mean we should destroy this place, then yes, definitely. There’s no one here Tyr,” I said, pointing out the fact that all of the building’s external cameras were clearly offline, dangling uselessly and filming the ground, “who knows what they were working on here, weapons development, tactical espionage, Hells, I don’t care if it’s the FNDC’s top-secret cookie recipe, we cannot let it fall into Commonwealth hands.”

  Tyr still didn’t seem fully convinced, though thankfully Mouse was on my side, “We should go inside,” she said, looking for a door, “if it is some kind of weapons development facility, which I think it is, there has to be something in there that we can use to either blast away the Commonwealth, or at least destroy this facility.”

  I gave her a little smile and a thanking nod, “Sounds good to me. Let’s split up and look for an entrance, and if anyone finds a rifle, dibs.”

  “I just…” Tyr said, not taking anything I’d said on, “I’m worried Frey. What if we unleash something? Or destroy something that the Federation needs to win the war?”

  “Then I’m confident that they’ll accept that we did what we had to do and died fighting the good fight. Now chop-chop, big sis wants a big gun.”

  That got him to smile, and pretty soon after he was the one calling from the other side of the facility, “I found it!”

  I ran over and arrived at about the same time as Mouse and saw the entrance, the doors blasted outward. “What do you think happened? The Commonwealth get here before us?” I asked as I disengaged my helmet.

  Tyr shook his head, “Not unless they had men on the inside. I think someone had to get out.” he said as we stepped into entranceway, the walls blackened by whatever blast had opened the door, “It doesn’t look like they were in a rush either, no bullet holes, no signs of barricade either. Whoever did this did it in one go, and judging from the blast point, they took their time with it.”

  “So… what?” I asked as we slowly made our way down a well-lit hall, a series of chambers that I guessed were once used for scanning and decontamination left wide open along the way, “Someone got bored and decided to break a door? Doesn’t seem constructive.”

  “Or maybe they were trapped,” Mouse said from behind us, having just booted up a wall terminal that had been hidden by a panel, “it looks like the place went into lockdown about six months ago. 254 personnel onsite, but not a single log, that’s weird, right?”

  “Not if they wiped the drives before leaving,” Tyr said as he started back down the hall, us in close tow, “From what I’m seeing they just got sick of waiting for the doors to reopen, my bets on they ran out of supplies.”

  “I’m inclined to agree. You see anythin-” it was at that exact moment that, with the sound of a heavy lever being pulled down, the lights went out.

  “You know what Frey? No I don’t.”

  Somebody’s in Here

  Almost the second the lights went out we’d all reactivated our helmets and discovered they had a rather nifty auto-adjuster for low-light conditions, painting everything in many shades of green.

  “Everyone else heard that, right?” Tyr asked as he scanned the hallway, “That was someone turning the lights off, wasn’t it?”

  “I think so, but let’s not go assuming things. For all we know Mouse activating the terminal caused a power surge.”

  “No way, the terminal was already active, I just shifted the panel. That sound was someone shutting off the system manually. We’re not alone in here.”

  I shuddered at the thought, and the way Mouse had phrased it made the cold chill running up my spine that much worse. I wasn’t panicking though, just really uncomfortable, to the point where I was wondering if the whole thing was worth all the trouble of me feeling watched.

  “Whoever it is, there can’t be many of them,” I said confidently, “life signs scan has turned up nothing.”

  That’s when I realised the odd thing about that scan, we weren’t on it either.

  And no, I didn’t think w
e were dead, I’m not stupid.

  “Ignore that, something’s messing up with my suit, have you guys got anything?”

  “Only visual for me.” Tyr said as we entered a large room that looked like a mix between a laboratory and an office.

  “Same here. Echolocation’s brought up a map though, looks like if we keep heading this way we’ll find an elevator that leads down, can’t get much more without being in the shaft though, too much interference.”

  I didn’t like the idea of using an elevator in a power outage, “Are there any stairs?” I asked as I tried to figure out how to bring up the echolocation software.

  “Not that I can see, but it looks like the lift’s run on its own power source. Here, have a look.”

  We all dropped to a knee in the middle of the lab as Mouse sent us a bunch of files that she’d somehow figured out how to generate. I’d have commented on how impressed I was, but at the same time I wanted to get the mission over and done with, praise could wait.

  She was dead right, and as I looked over the two different maps, one 3D echolocation, and the other made based on the few electrical pulses left in the building.

  I could see how she knew the elevator went down, the echolocation map clearly showed the lift, though nothing above it and a small, unstructured shaft below it. The thing was also lit up like fire on an infrared scan, with no sign that any wiring actually led to it, at least not from where we were standing.

  “Alright then, down we go. Move up on the elevator.”

  We’d reached the doors in no time, and when we pushed the button next to them they opened to a clean, white elevator without so much as a squeak, didn’t stop us from searching all the corners before stepping in though, and even then we moved so delicately it was like our feet weren’t touching the ground at all.

  “Which floor?” Tyr asked, his hand hovering over the literally dozens of buttons.

  I thought about doing a floor by floor scan, but figured they’d keep all the best stuff at the bottom, “Lowest one possible. If there’s nothing down there we’ll move up one, and so on.”