- "An abandoned house out of town, flying spaceships... Ronnie hasn't said a thing about any of that. I'm losing faith in him." - she said to herself. But before she could reflect any further, her mother knocked on the door to her room.
- Good morning, beautiful!
She carried a tray with her breakfast. It was the perfect setup for a conversation.
- How did you sleep? - her mother asked.
- Oh, I slept... normal. Why do you ask?
- Sheer curiosity. Have you talked to Ronnie recently?
Of course, naturally, Ashlynn did not mention her midnight trip to Winchester.
- No. He's been very quiet recently. I don't like that.
- Rightfully so. How exactly is he quiet?
- Well he's not exactly mute, but he doesn't give me any clear answers as to what he's doing and who he's seeing. He postponed our last conversation and then the next day he gave me incomplete and vague answers. I'm exhausted - I can't go on like this.
Her mother answered after a long sigh:
- There's only one solution to your dilemma. You have to leave him before it's too late for your own good.
- But what will I do by myself? He's the only one who truly understands me. Such men are rare.
- And yet you can find more out there. Believe me, you'll feel better after you leave him and find someone else... or just skip the first step and find someone else. Exercise silence; that will surely make him talk. Try it and you'll see. Now have some coffee and think about my words.
Upon taking a swig of coffee, Ashlynn connected the dots. Ronnie's silence was indeed unnerving and she was running out of approaches and options.
***
- Hey, Bronco, did you hear about the crater at the football stadium?
That was Lawrence's colleague Bill Langline, whom, unfortunately, Lawrence did not admire very much, mostly because of his tendency to be excruciatingly nosy. In order to divert his attention without being rude, he denied and said that he was going to look into it whenever he got the chance. Bronco was also patiently waiting for updates from the boys and to start giving them assignments. He already had a juicy offer for a 15 000 dollar bounty for some hunter who nearly killed a bald eagle with his hunting rifle and he was well aware that the trio could not resist such a reward. Despite his enthusiasm to start giving them undercover assignments, Bronco still kept a certain amount of doubt about their liability and a certain amount of objectivity at the same time.
- "I'll have to act like a Secret Service agent from now on." - Lawrence said to himself. Sadly he could not continue reflecting, because he had other pressing matters.
***
The ship boarded. Struggling to activate the cloaks, the boys were almost ready to give in to panic. Without raising his voice too much, Garret said:
- How the fuck did we do it last time?
- No idea, mate, just find a way and do it! - Tyler said.
A frantic attempt later and Tyler's body became invisible.
- Look in "Utilities" - it's there! - he said.
Huklin was in the hangar. The assassins jumped out of the ship.
- Did the equipment work? - he asked, but the answer he received was a push to the side by Mintelk. The three of them left the hangar crew to unload the equipment.
- Ungrateful scum. Careful with that! Do you know how brittle that is? - Huklin was frustrated and had little control over the events that occurred. With nothing he could do to remedy the outcome, he contacted the Overlord:
- Your Magnificence, they've returned and they're extremely rude. I'd assume their assignment did not go too well and now they are most likely heading your way. What do you want me to do?
- Unload the equipment and fix whatever is broken; I shall handle the rest.
Furot then broke a computer screen with his fist and spoke to Retion:
- How can a task this simple be so difficult for them? I should have sent Gibel to do the dirty work and then give him what he has been pestering me for: power and control, a chance to prove himself and earn my respect.
- Should I busy myself with them, your Magnificence?
- No. I want you to find Gibel and tell him that his time to shine will come sooner than he thinks. Don't make it too obvious; make him think about what you're going to tell him.
As Retion left the room, Ren'ul prepared himself for the upcoming conversation. Although under normal circumstances he was objective and fair, his patience was running out and he was not willing to put up with failure after failure.
- "Gibel may have a point. I'm not giving him any opportunities. I've become a horrible father; that has to change as soon as possible before he does something outrageous and lose his life."
As he was pondering on what task to charge Gibel with, the sisters showed up. Scarred, slightly beaten and tired, they borderline crawled into the room. As Mintelk began the debriefing, Furot instantly interrupted her:
- I don't want to hear anything related to malfunctioning hardware or faulty wiring! Instead I want you to tell me: how did you manage to fail again? How?
- We... we couldn't...
- Could not what? Activate the defence turrets? Figure out how the bracelets work? Remember your objective? Or perhaps... the reason you three are still breathing?
They could not answer because of the shock and the exhaustion. However, that did not mean they didn't have an answer:
- We can't answer that adequately, Ren'ul. - said Kunala.
- That's ''master'' to you, soulless wench!
With those words he began reminding her of the previous tortures. What the Overlord normally does is he makes sure that his victims remember all of the unpleasant experiences they go through and keep them in their minds, regardless of how hard they try to forget them. The tortures surfaced. Her mind bended once again and so did she... to her knees. Her sisters could not do anything about it, because they would undergo the exact same treatment. Any attempt at doing otherwise was futile. Stand and watch; that's what they could only do.
Ren'ul used that opportunity to bend Helaka and Mintelk aswell. Now that they were crippled, he took a set of ponderous chains, tied their legs together by their ankles and commenced dragging them across the floor. His victims could only wait for the inevitable. The personnel could only snicker once they were not in the presence of the Overlord. It is understandable that they do this behind closed doors, out of fear for their own lives.
It was only fitting to perform the torture in a torture room. A place which is depressing, emits hopelessness and doesn't see light in any form. Tied up, naked and helpless, gritting their teeth and suppressing their tears - that's what the sisters were doing as the Overlord was violently ravishing them.
***
- Macy, try and get some sleep.
- I can't. It's... because of Ronnie. He's not home.
- His life is changing as we speak, Macy. It's beyond our control. From now on, no matter what we do or say... we won't change anything. And we have to live with that.
It was true. Imposing limits on Ronnie would not make sense, because now he was under a different type of authority. He had to turn into a soldier, a warrior, a shining beacon for a dead race and an entire cause.
- It's hopeless to even try; is that what you're saying? - said Macy.
- We could only tell him to be careful, but we don't know who's in charge now and who or what he's facing. I have faith in him. Yes, he's still young, care-free, sometimes careless, immature even, but also... he has a strong sense of right and wrong. He's naive, but not dumb. Once he's done doing... whatever he's doing, he will tell us. Calm down and get some sleep, dear. - said Raymond.
Instead, she went to the bathroom and returned to bed about two minutes later. It was difficult for Ray to sway such thoughts from his wife, but he had to somehow divert her attention and make her focus her worries on other areas and issues.
***
- So... what else? - said Garret.
- I don't know. - Tyler replied s
lightly sarcastically. The boys were still stuck in the hangar, hiding behind some crates.
- Um... how about we try scanning the surroundings, find out where we are and get to work, so we can leave as soon as possible? - Ronnie said.
- True that. - Garret agreed.
The scan revealed many corridors, all of which were useless to the trio, because they contained guards. The ventilation shafts were not an option, because Tyler feared that they would cause too much noise by moving around like mice in them. They had to move out of the hangar out of fear of being locked in; a logical fear due to them being unaware of the working principle of the electronics of the vessel.
- Someone's coming down the corridor to the right. Make a decision, otherwise the entire ship is...
Garret interrupted Ronnie, as he tried to apply his mind-reading. The crate they were hiding behind contained weapons and was going to be moved out of the hangar. Without further ado, the Trinity lifted the lid, transposed a portion of the weapons and laid down. Normally a person would not be able to hear what the two aliens were saying. Thankfully the trio were not normal anymore, biologically speaking, so they could clearly hear the conversation in the tiniest of details. Apparently these guns were being transported to a training facility, so that infantry could practice.
- We're stuck now. Once they open the crate, everything goes south. - Tyler whispered.
- Let's just wait and see where we will end up, then kill as many of them as we can, sabotage as much hardware as we can get our hands on and leave early. What could possibly go wrong? - Garret suggested.
- I'm not sure. Maybe... everything? Have you ever considered that scenario or is it far too unlikely to happen? Once they open the crate, the entire place will be garnished with blood and smothered in death. We came here to sabotage. - said Tyler.
- Is killing infantry not considered sabotage? This is an ideal opportunity to shrink the Overlord's army and stir the order a tiny bit. We can take a few shots, as we already figured out earlier. - said Garret.
The crate stopped moving. It had stopped in the training facility. The boys could see the soldiers through the sides of the crate. The Trinity could not teleport, neither could use a ventilation shaft to escape. They were stuck and the only way out for them was through a pile of soon to be lifeless corpses.
The lid rose into the air and as soon as that happened, the soldiers who opened the crate dropped it immediately after their torsos got ventilated by Tyler's thumb which turned into a 454 Magnum and fired 4 rounds. Garret lifted the lid back up again and tossed it to the side. This was the beginning of the bloodbath aboard the ship, the boys' maiden attempt at a military operation. Tyler didn't take it as such; instead, he saw it as a way to stretch his legs, now that he was a conveyor belt of mutilation. He wanted to break some rules, remove his restraints and find his limits. Unfortunately, however, he had not yet mastered the skill of ignoring the pain and that was the reason he was yelping:
- Ouch, ow, ouch, ah!
Instead of going through the effort of discharging his firearms, Garret opted for a more outflanking approach involving his ability to spray acid in immeasurable quantities. With several squirts he not only ate away the skin and some of the muscles of the soldiers, but also corroded parts of one of the walls. After Ronnie was done perforating another two soldiers with his blades, he declared:
- Alright, this room is done. We need to move on and find... I don't know what we need to find. Any ideas on where to go?
Garret suggested going to a lab 4 levels above the current one. The corridors were still empty, because the alarm wasn't sounded... until they rushed outside into the corridor and a Mukyn activated it and attacked them. This creature was very skinny and agile, with legs as thin as those of a gazelle. The Mukyn is, in fact, the species that Ren'ul uses as maintenance personnel, because maintenance does not require too much strength or a set of fighting skills. The inability to defend themselves, however, meant that they were no match for anything aboard the ship, let alone the Trinity. As a result of that absence, the Mukyn was quickly dispatched by 2 shotgun shots from Ronnie's UTS-15, which he drew from his right forearm.
- How do we shut off the alarm? It's bloody irritating! The switch is gone! - Tyler shouted and tried to turn it off by punching the panel where the switch used to be, even though the only result was a broken panel and a destroyed switch, which wasn't helping at all.
- We have to hide again. Everyone and their great-grandmother now knows we're here. Where's the nearest ventilation shaft? - said Ronnie.
- I see one in the corridor on the other side of the hangar. It's not too far away and a bunch of armed wackos are coming our way through it. - said Garret.
- No delaying it. We're bulldozing our way through! - said Tyler and lead the charge. Once they got back to the hangar, Tyler decided it was the perfect opportunity to test some explosive weapons, namely a pair of Milkor 40mm grenade launchers. That test resulted in ammunition crates exploding like fireworks, ships being knocked down from their maintenance stands and holes in the walls, along with lots of delicate electronics ruined because of the explosions and subsequent shockwaves from the grenades. He also swamped the infantry that came through the corridor they were supposed to take. To prevent Tyler from having all the fun, Garret and Ronnie experimented as well. Their test subjects were a bunch of Ptulens, which were lead into the hangar by some Numeksi. This was an even bigger challenge for the boys, because the Numeksi also brought many Zysets perched on their shoulders and heads. The overwhelming numbers intimidated the Trinity, although on the upside, it meant that they could shoot more than it was necessary. Part of their task was, indeed, destruction and the only other task they had was to protect themselves from anything and everything. Ronnie followed Tyler's footsteps and he, too, got rid of his restraints. His firearms experiment consisted of two Remington 870 shotguns, one on each of his forearms.
- "Right, let's see if this will work." - Ronnie said to himself and commenced firing in the general direction of the Ptulens. It was difficult for him at first, because he was dual-wielding a weapon with a lot of recoil, medium accuracy at best and at a relatively large distance. Thankfully, because he was now an Immortal, he possessed systems which reduce the recoil and improve his aim significantly, but only then did he realise how useful they were when activated. The firepower was insufficient.
- "It works, but to a certain degree. I need something with a better rate of fire. Submachine guns! Of course!" - after that ponderation Ronnie pulled out a pair of UMP45 submachine guns. The end result was, of course, more firepower, but at the cost of less control over the discharge. In order to remedy this, Ronnie tucked away one SMG and one shotgun, so he could alternate between the different rates of fire more easily.
- "I need more firearms training. Should have done so in the summer with my uncle." - Ronnie said to himself once again. However, he was doing reasonably well with this asymmetric approach. Garret and Tyler were having issues with the Numeksi. Garret made the mistake of fighting hand to hand with one of the creatures and suffered for it by being thrown to the side. Tyler was smarter and instead he froze its legs, broke them and shot the Numeks in the face.
- Ah, I forgot about the easier option. Thanks for the demo, Tyler. - Garret thanked him and they both ran to aid Ronnie in his struggle to eliminate the Ptulens. Instead of fiddling around with firearms, they used electricity and ice to knock them out of the air; Garret electrocuted them and Tyler turned them into ice cubes. Ronnie looked at them with a slight amount of disappointment and said:
- Oh, come on! I had it under control.
- It didn't look like that a few moments ago, buddy. - said Garret, tapped his shoulder and added:
- You need to be more flexible and unpredictable with your attacks.
- Thanks... Jackie Chan. - Ronnie sarcastically responded.
- We have to hide, not stand here and chat! Come on, move it! - Tyler urged them and as they ploughed their way through
Furot's infantry, the Overlord's sexual torture session aimed at the assassins was interrupted by Huklin, who contacted him through his intercom. The main advantage of the torture room was also its main disadvantage; while it succeeds at deadening every possible noise coming from it, outside noises could not be heard at all, including the intruder alarm to some degree.
- What is it? Now is far from a suitable moment to interrupt...
- My sincerest apologies, my liege, but we have an enormous problem. Outsiders have infiltrated the ship. One of the hangars is almost completely destroyed and we've already lost a certain amount of units.
- Which hangar, Huklin?
- 531.
- You three have brought the immortal scum onboard! One move or sound out of any of you and you'll be sent to exile on the nearest planet!
With those words Ren'ul left the room and locked it up.
- Do you know their whereabouts, Huklin?
- The last information that I received, your Majesty, is that they're somewhere in the vicinity of the aforementioned hangar. Our warriors are trying to capture them, but so far they have not been successful. What is your plan, sir?
- Turn off the alarm, so they'd think we lost them. Trace their moves and once they do something suspicious, use whatever is necessary to weaken them and bring them to me.
Huklin followed the order and deactivated the alarm via a panel identical to the one the Mukyn used.
As soon as the alarm stopped, the boys were perplexed. The infantry was killed and no one else was coming for them.
- Is that it? - Tyler asked.
- Well... no one's coming. I hope it stays so. - Garret declared right after scanning the surroundings.
- Now we can hide for a bit and take a breath. - said Ronnie.
- No, Ronnie, now we can continue with the sabotage. - Tyler corrected him and continued:
- Where do we begin, though? That's the question that has to be answered right now.
- How about that large... what is that? A warehouse? - Garret said.
The Immortal Trinity: Inheritance Page 16
