by Jared Paul
The Commander looked down at us all on the deck below him. When he passed over me, we traded a momentary glance. I think he knew I was listening in on their little talk. When Zero turned back to the Overlord, he quietly said, "I suggest you keep that kind of information to yourself, Doctor."
Louder, he commanded everyone, "Prepare for the weaving!"
Enthusiastically, Zero then jumped down into the ranks of the legion. Above, Deadstock was left up on the platform bridge, all by himself. The Commander came up beside me and proceeded to stand near, patting my shoulder with fake comfort. Before, I had always idolized the Commander. In my eyes he could do no wrong. He had always kept those under his command safe and cared for. Something was becoming different about him. Something was driving him to accomplish his mission at whatever cost. The seeds of possibility that my hero would fail me were being planted. Those seeds had not yet come to fruition, but the possibility was there.
I decided to practice caution in completely rejecting a man that I regarded like a father. I knew he would have my back and I, his. At least, that's how it had always been in the past.
As he stood next to me, the Commander punched in a clip of hyper ammo into his huge Brawler gun. It was a gargantuan weapon of deviant proportions, looking something more like a dismounted cannon than a handheld armament. He forced some hyper rounds into some spare magazines, taking notice of me watching him.
Zero asked, "You nervous, mate?"
I was, so I nodded. "Think it'll hurt, sir?" I had grown pretty fond of my body and wasn't taking very well to the idea of someone splitting its molecules apart and putting it back together, Space Wizard or not.
He mused, "Well, it's probably going to feel different for everyone, but for me, I expect it'll feel like being born and taking the first breath. A good pain." Zero raised his gaze up toward the Overlord. "For him, however, I imagine it feels like dying to him. Again and again."
Up on the raised platform, I could tell there was a troubling storm swirling around in each of Deadstock's purple eyes. I wondered if it was concern for us. Maybe it was concern for himself. It could have been anger too, I just don't know.
I traded a worried look with Sentria from afar as Zero playfully tussled the strands of my hair, "You shouldn't worry so much. She can take care of herself. She'll be right as apples and you'll be just fine.
I lied in response, "Yeah, you're probably right." Zero had taken me under his wing since the initial onset of my time in the Thralldom, but I was no longer sure if I could trust him.
Overhead, Dr. Deadstock inhaled a lively breath as he took a powerful stance and began to meditate deeply. His eyelids shut out the violet luminescence around his abysmal pupils. When he reopened his eyes, the brightness had intensified.
The protruding veins of his arms, neck, and face began to increasingly illuminate in an eerie glow. His eyes were growing brighter and brighter. He then closed them again in an unbreakable concentration. His body quavered violently as he did. Soon, we began to feel our suits strangely moving, morphing into something not quite palpable.
Once more, the Overlord opened his eyes. Taking another deep breath, he spread out his arms upon the exhale. His eyes had intensified even more and his winding veins were like streams of pure light. Here and there, he began to disintegrate into thousands of pixels. A weaving was being formed.
Eventually, his whole body was completely pixelated in a ghostly state. The static weave of data began to flow toward the center of his being, all vanishing somewhere in the middle. The fragments were disappearing and his form was fading away. An unrecognizable apparition, he had become a spectral countenance of his physical self.
Every one of us then found ourselves being converted into an invisible nothing as well. Looking over at the others, they were like a million little sparkles floating around like dust in a stream of sunlight. All of us were transitioning from our physical presence into an existence of suspended animation.
Together, the whole legion was dematerializing into thin air. It was kind of unexplainable, but it felt like nothing was happening at all as we were slowly turning into nothing in itself. As we entered the weave, we become the weave.
Then, a sudden burst snapped out from above. The Overlord was gone! Below the platform bridge, we all disappeared too.
Pixelating back into reality, the next thing I could feel was the breeze of a clear sky grating against my suit. My matter took form and I could see everything with clarity. I was in a state of freefall somewhere in the open air. Below, the ocean. Upon its expanse, Fever Island. We were tumbling toward it.
I wasn't alone. Like a mad flock of gulls, there was no consistency to the way the legion had reappeared. We had all emerged in an instant surge and everybody was falling in different directions as they swayed and twisted through the sky.
Even with the help of our jet packs, stability was going to be hard to come by. The Overlord was the last of us to rematerialize. He wasn't wrestling round and round like the rest. He was just peacefully floating down. He was out cold. The immense weaving had taken its toll on him.
Zero glided on over toward him to take a closer look. "Doctor! Doctor, wake up!"
The Commander then shook the Overlord back to cognizance. Deadstock awoke and peered around in our wild freefall. Looking up, he could see the distant outline of the Spider's Shield fortifying overhead. He had successfully weaved us all inside its dome.
Zero kept his hands on Deadstock's shoulders so that they wouldn't fly apart as he spoke. "We're through the Spider's Shield. Can you get us further to ground level?"
"My focus is shot," the Overlord said, loudly over the wind. "I'm spent. I can't get a fix on anything. This is as far as I could send everyone with the lowest range of risk. We'll have to land manually."
"Copy that," Zero sadly nodded before separating into a solo flight. "All squads, form up!"
Taking the Commander's lead, the legion arranged into an ordered system behind his descent. Riding the air current, we flew down with our heads first. Rapidly picking up speed, our jet packs were pushing us with insane velocity from behind.
All seemed to be going okay for a while, until Sentria made note that all definitely wasn't alright. "Commander, we've got a problem!"
"What is it, Captain?" Zero asked without breaking speed.
"Take a look behind you!" Sentria advised.
Zero turned his helmet back ever so slightly. He then tried his best to stabilize his freefall, dipping around to get a closer look and examine the situation in question.
Above, the Spider's Shield was getting closer at a very fast rate. The dome was shrinking. The air space beneath it was getting smaller. The crisscrossing beams were coming straight for us.
He turned to the Overlord, "Doctor, please tell me you've revitalized. There's no way we can outfly that! It's nearly on us!"
"Guess we'll find out," Deadstock said as he plumed his jet pack and sped further down.
"I hope you've got a plan," said Zero as he followed after him, boosting his jet with a signal for us to follow.
As we dived through the air and the beams were about to cross over us, the Overlord found the verve to make another weave. As the webs were at our trailing feet, he weaved us just a small distance further down to keep us ahead of danger. It wasn't much, but it was all the focus he could muster at the time and we were all grateful for it.
He kept it going for as long as he could. Every time the Spider's Shield would close in, Deadstock would quickly widen the gap by sending our matter just a tiny bit away from it. Ultimately, it became too much for him. When his focus finally vanished for good, the beams came upon us and there wasn't anything that anybody could do to outfly the pulsing webs.
Sentria was at the back of the legion, at the very brink of the beams. She had taken the rear during the departure as was customary for a Squad Captain. Sadly, it meant she would be the first to go down if the Spider's Shield overcame us. Sentria was trying to dive away from th
e webs when someone came to stand in the way.
"Move aside," she called out. "Get out of the way!"
It was Nix. Sentria made a few attempts to fly past her. Apparently unaware, Nix was blocking each pass. Whatever side Sentria banked to, Nix obliviously maneuvered to wedge her out.
Sentria's moment of opportunity was soon over as was all of ours. The pulses of the Spider's Shield flew into us and took out many of my fellow Thralls. Suits deactivated and jet packs ceased to ignite. Still alive, they would all know a terrible death as they plunged helplessly to the island below.
Sentria was one of them. She got hit by a beam straight through her center. Not only did the web overload her conduit, but her muscles locked up and all she could do was witness her slow demise.
Like the Commander, the Overlord, and myself, many of us had timed it just right. When the Spider's Shield flew over our position, we carefully glided our way through the openings of the constantly interlacing webs. It wasn't easy and only two thirds of our legion had effectively pulled off the trick. The other third was lost, but I wasn't just going to let Sentria fall to her death.
I flew over to her immobile frame and held her close in my care. Whether we were going to crash or if I could manage to land us both safely, we would be together through it all. In my arms, we would either know life or death as our two bodies hugged onto each other.
"Solomon, I can't feel my arms or legs," she voiced out to me in panic. "I can't move!"
"I got you," I assured her. "I got you."
Suddenly, Zero radioed out into every earpiece, "Alright, you mob! Here we go! It's about to come-a-guster all over again!"
The remains of our legion had miraculously slipped through the Shield's descent over our heads, only to realize it had settled to stand in our way beneath us. Below, just above the far reaches of the tallest structure of the island, was the Spider's Shield. It was waiting for us.
We had already bypassed it twice. Once, when we first entered the weave. The second time, when the lasers passed us on the way down. The legion would have to face the puzzle of webs for a third time and it would prove to be the most difficult. The webs were expanding as the dome around the island was getting bigger. The furious, crisscrossing beams of the Spider's Shield were on their way back up to us.
"Now would be a great time for you to get us out of here," pleaded Zero to Deadstock.
"I think I got one more weave left in me, but I don't have a fix on everyone," worried the Overlord as the beams approached closer. "We're not all going to make it!"
Heads first, our descent then met with the manic escalation of the Spider's Shield. The two forces collided. The Overlord weaved all that he could focus on and sent them under the webs. Though I never got hit by a beam, I was one of the unlucky Thralls that Deadstock found himself unable to weave. He was weak and could only save so many. Holding Sentria tight to my chest, I yelled out in adrenaline as I squeezed through a gap in the web work and barely escaped three beams crossing into me.
Those of us that were still operational came through to the other side. Some had rematerialized. Others, like me, had flown safely through the Spider's Shield.
In air and nearing the ground, the legion had come beneath the skyline of a central tower. A mess of antennas was peeking out from its every shamble and patch. Over the island, the webs weren't come any closer than the top of the structure's height. We were safe. The Spider's Shield returned to its place on high, out of sight.
In one fluid moment, the legion then positioned out of its nosedive. We all flipped on our backs, like cradled babies as our jet packs steadied a drift toward solid ground. With Sentria clamped onto me, we were like feathers in the wind. We glided down to the island as its surface came into view. Landing, we came upright as our feet skidded across pavement. Sparks were sent flickering from the soles of our boots while my jet pack worked to bring resistance and stop our momentum. Soon, we were on solid ground. Screeching and skidding, everybody else slid down in different positions and locations around the landing zone. Scattered about, we all regrouped to the Commander.
In my arms, Sentria had begun to regain her muscle movement. "I'm ok," she guaranteed as she pushed away from my grasp. "I can walk. You need to get back to your squad and I've got my own to lead."
As we separated back to our respective squads, I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed at the sight of the less fortunate. All across the landing zone were puddles of smashed Thralls that had not escaped the terrors of the Spider's Shield. They had fallen without hope of survival. I can't begin to imagine what that kind of descent would've been like, not that I'd even want to know. For them, it must've been a slow and tortuous fall to their doom. Up there in the air, they were perfectly alive and aware in their agonizing wait to reach their deaths below.
My pity was cut short when a little outburst caught everyone's attention. Still bitter from the events of the fall, Sentria had marched up to Nix from behind. She threw off her helmet and whacked it hard onto the back of Nix's head. Catching her off guard, it sent the subordinate operative to the ground. Nix quickly sideswiped the Squad Captain in retaliation, legs knocking into legs. Sentria was sent down to the concrete, hard. The two then got up and immediately went for the other's throat. With both hands strung about Nix's neck, Sentria lifted her adversary up and coldly threw her onto the ground. After some coughing and panting, they both went at it again.
Taking notice, the Commander sighed exhaustively and proceeded to stomp over to the fight. As they exchanged tangles and jabs, Zero came up closely to one side and unsheathed a short, yet very wide blade. With his thumb, he flicked a button on the hilt and the blade extended into a full-sized machete. The blade whipped out horizontally into the midst of their scuffle. Nix and Sentria paused and stepped back with the sharp machete glimmering between them.
Zero chewed them both out. "It just so happens that until we find a way to destroy the Spider's Shield, we're all trapped here on this island, together. You're lucky no one is going anywhere, because otherwise, I'd send both of you hoons to the nick!" It never failed that when Zero was mad, his tongue spiraled from speaking English into his Australian strine, a version of English that we rarely understood.
"She tried to get me killed," Sentria pointed to her rival.
"I don't give two knocks who spit the dummy first," barked Zero. "You're a Squad Captain, Sentria. Start acting like it!"
Nix didn't get off easy, either. "And you," Zero crossly addressed the insubordinate. "We're all a team here. You're part of that team so I suggest you lob in. You wouldn't want to be mistaken for the enemy now, would you? Not with me around, you won't."
Things instantly cooled off, if a tad forcefully, but it got the job done. Salutes exchanged and the commotion was over. We all then went back to the matter at hand to try and unlock the secrets of the island around us.
Fever Island was a compound of archaic concrete structures in the midst of an abandoned shantytown. The slum was a jumbled network of barriers, forts, towers, and tunnels. The concrete was wet and moldy. There was an abundance of rust between unkempt patches of moss and ferns.
Wherever the concrete was without foliage, graffiti was found littered all over. Though dark in subject matter, there were large portions of vibrant doodles drawn over every outer wall. The art seemed alive. It was as if the colors had a life of their own next to the overgrown vegetation. One scribble in particular had us all scratching our heads and swallowing gulps in our throats. Again and again, it appeared upon the long walls.
It read, "All hail the Underlord."
Who was he? Was there any connection to the Overlord? My thought was that this Underlord was some kind of mirror image, a bizarre reflection. I wondered if he could be Dr. Deadstock's doppelganger, mostly likely done so in mockery. Maybe somebody was just trying to get Deadstock's attention, or worse, trying to take his place.
Around the landing zone, there were no other clues as to who the Underlord might be. There was
no sign of anyone, or any life for that matter, save for the colorful graffiti upon the walls. The island was unpleasantly quiet. It was too quiet for comfort. Aside from the wind and waves, the only sound we could hear was a peculiar mechanical whine.
At the threshold of our landing zone, we found an atypical machine. Big and angled, lights were blinking all over it and we could hear something like an engine running from behind its panels. A bridge of flowing energy was stretching out from its top and stemming up to the Spider's Shield above.
Sentria was the first to examine it. "What is this thing?"
"Not sure." The Commander prodded the panels with the butt of his brawler gun. "It seems to be connected to the Spider's Shield, though. Any idea on what we have here, Doctor?"
Deadstock looked it over, up and down. "It's a Blood Tech generator, paired with the Spider's Shield to supply it with power, but it can't create enough energy to power all those webs by itself. The Blood Tech generators were designed to work in threes, which means there's two others just like it out here on the island somewhere. Take out the three generators and you'll take out the Spider's Shield."
"Now that's what I like to hear," smiled Zero before turning to his older brother. "Fossil, set up demolitions. I want this heap of machine brought down to rubble."
"Right away," complied Fossil as he directed another operative of Azure squad with the flick of his hand.
Suddenly, Zero gave a hand signal of his own. "Hold on," he waved us all to a standstill with one hand and tuned in to his radio earpiece with the other. "I'm getting something from the 'Lunar Wrath.'"
A slow, deep voice boomed out through his radio, "Commander Zero. Visual on United has been lost."
Zero wasn't happy at the news. "What? Where did they go?"
"Unknown," said the voice. It was Far Stranger. Why was Deadstock's personal intelligence working exclusively with Zero instead of operating directly with its master? Deadstock didn't seem to care, so I safely assumed the intelligence now had two masters. Maybe the Overlord no longer held any authority over the functions of his own creations.
