by Dante Doom
"What are you talking about?" Neil asked. "Fredrick officially relieved me and O'Hara ten minutes ago."
"You should have heard all of the swear words I was finally allowed to use on that guy!" O'Hara said. "It was great!"
"There's a pod in there that contains the mind of our strongest ally, the Xevov named Jet," Sang said as she pointed to back where the base was.
"So?" Neil asked.
"So, we're gonna go back in there, steal it, and get the hell out of here," Sang said. "The Xevov are still enslaved. Just because we killed the Draco leader doesn't mean the war is over. It's just beginning. It's just no longer defense – it's an offensive operation."
"But what about being mercenaries in South America?" O'Hara asked as she crossed her arms.
"And the Swedish men!" Neil protested.
"Swedish men and living the rough-cut life of a mercenary can wait!" Sang replied. "We still have a shot at really making a difference."
"And you want our help?" Neil asked. "That is a shock. I'm guessing Van is in, too?'
"Damn straight, he is," Sang said. "Now, do you two chuckleheads want to jump in on the real action or do you want to retire early?"
Neil paused for a moment to consider her words. He glanced over at O'Hara. "What do you think, Red? Do we rip off the government and high-tail it to some country where they'll never find us?"
"How is that any different from what we were planning anyway?" O'Hara asked. "The way I look at it, the more we can learn about these aliens, the better. I sure as hell loved the X-Files and I want to keep living it out."
"Neil?" Sang asked.
Neil shifted a little as he leaned up off of the hood of the car. "All I've ever wanted to do was help people. I know I'm violent and angry, prone to intense outbursts of threats and savagery, but honestly, it's all for the goal of doing good. Do you really think we can help that race?"
"I can guarantee it," Sang said.
"And… will it be a violent way to help them?" Neil asked.
"Absolutely," Sang replied.
"Then count me in. Come on, let's go knock Frederick out, steal the pod, gut-punch Van, and then get the hell out of here."
"Um, we're only doing three of those things," Sang said as she followed after the frenzied Neil. She was hoping they would formulate some kind of a plan before just charging back into the base, but Neil seemed to know what he was doing. At least, she hoped he did.
20
Van still couldn't believe what had happened. They were all crammed in a Subaru with a large silver pod sticking out of the back, driving frantically across the desert. Everything had moved so quickly. At first, he had been talking to Cindy and asking her to join him, and the next thing he had known, the world was in chaos. People were shouting, guns were being fired, and Van found himself reeling from an intense gut punch as Neil burst in, grabbed Cindy, and slugged Van in the stomach and told him to get to the car before someone got shot.
How they'd managed to load the pod into the vehicle and avoid the CIA guards would forever be a mystery to Van, but he was pretty sure that most of the guard detail was only pretending to chase after them. Even the cars that had given chase had stopped after a few miles of driving. Now they were all crammed into the car, heading to some undisclosed location.
"So, you're positive it's here?" Neil asked as he checked his map again.
"Yes," Cindy said. "The repository should be seven miles to the north."
"Ohhhh, man," Neil said, rubbing his hands together. "Things are just getting better and better."
"I'm still not following any of this," Van said. "And, Neil, why did you punch me?"
"Because I'm not a government man anymore, and your threats of complaints to my supervisor will no longer restrain my wanton urge for violence!" Neil replied. "And that was a congratulatory punch. You did a crazy-good job on saving the world, and I appreciate you."
"Why are you so insane?" Van asked.
"Because I'd be boring as hell if I weren't!" Neil replied. "Now, listen up: Cindy here disclosed to me a few hours ago that there's some kind of place they call a repository. It was designed to be a safehouse in case things got really bad for the Draco representatives down here. This repository contains enough gear for us to make contact with the Draco mothership."
"Interesting," Sang said. "That mothership is full of dead Draco now."
"Exactly, so it's most likely going to be relatively easy to break into. Once we get in there, we can hook up the pod to the satellite thing and see what we need."
"What about the government?" Sang asked. "They're going to be looking for us."
"Underground tunnels!" Neil replied. "These suckers are connected all across America. The Draco really wanted to make sure they had their assets protected."
"The plan was simple," Cindy said. "We would stay in our bases if Plan A was executed, in which case a series of catastrophic events would cripple the American infrastructure and we'd watch everyone tear themselves apart. But if for some reason Plan A failed, the second plan was to unleash a hellstorm of nuclear missiles across every populated place and body of water. The bunkers were designed to be a shelter for those of us who were to remain."
"And you were perfectly okay with that?" Sang asked.
Cindy sighed. "I don't know what to tell you."
"Man, oh, man, you are so lucky you're so valuable to us," Neil said. "Cause I guarantee you'd be the one they'd pin all of this on."
"You think I don't know that?" Cindy replied. "I just want to pay back my debt to society and go home."
"Well, this is how it starts," O'Hara replied. "You do one good deed after another and then maybe you won't feel so guilty about betraying humanity."
"Oh, burn!" Neil said.
Sang glanced over at Van and smiled at him. "I told you we could do it."
"You really did," Van said. "I didn't believe you… but you managed to put it all together."
A few more hours of driving passed before they reached a large boulder in the middle of the desert.
"That's it," Cindy said as the car rolled up to a stop, "that's the place."
Neil took out his pistol as he parked the car. "Alright, let's check it out. You kids stay in the back and try to keep quiet."
O'Hara nodded and drew out her revolver, and the two slipped out of the car and began to investigate the area, looking for any signs of trouble.
"This place is abandoned," Cindy said. "We got a signal from headquarters a moment before we lost all contact with the Draco. They told us that there was some kind of a compromise on their base and that we were to await further instructions, but nothing happened after that. There was nothing but pure silence for hours. Then a single message arrived. 'If you are reading this, the mothership has been compromised. It's all over.' And that was it. We called around to a few bases and we all got the same message. So everyone left. Well… not our division, of course; as we were getting ready to leave, the CIA busted the wall down and arrested half of us, and shot the ones who resisted."
"It's clear," Neil said as he walked back to the car. "Not a soul for miles around. So how do we get into this base?"
Cindy clambered out of the car and walked up to the boulder. She placed her hand against it and the side of the boulder began to light up with a foreign language. Van could recognize the Draco language at this point, although he still had no power to read it. She worked with the interface for a few moments until the boulder began to hiss loudly. It parted ways, revealing a large staircase leading to a bunker in the ground.
"Interesting stuff," Neil said as he, O'Hara, and Van hoisted the pod out of the vehicle. "So, is it clear down there or are you walking us into some kind of freaky hold-out ambush?"
"It's not an ambush," Cindy said as she crossed her arms. "They're all probably gone."
"Well, we'll see about that," O'Hara said. "I'm gonna scope out the inside. Neil, get rid of the vehicle."
Neil nodded and walked over to the car, and began t
o fiddle with it. "If I were you guys, I'd pull these suitcases full of cash out," he said as he leaned into the driver's seat and began to work on the gas pedal.
"What are you doing?" Van asked.
"We're gonna let this sucker keep on driving, throwing them off our trail," Neil said.
Sang was busy pulling the suitcases full of money out of the car, and much to Van's surprise, there was quite a lot of money. Somehow, he had been expecting the CIA to screw them over on the financial side of things, as well.
"It's clear," O'Hara said as she reemerged from the bunker. "Not a soul down there. One dead guy, though he looks like he shot himself."
"Weird," Sang said.
"Some of them were like that," Cindy said. "They really were messed up in the head, and Draco had some kind of control over them. Creepy stuff."
"Yet, you had no trouble taking a paycheck from them," Neil said as he finished his work on the car. "And there we go!" He turned the car on and it roared to life. As soon as it started, it began to roll forward, far away from them.
"You know, it might just crash into something a few miles away," Sang said. "I mean, it could literally get stuck five minutes from here."
"I know, so I rigged it to blow the hell up," Neil said.
"When did you have time to do that?" Van shouted.
"Oh, before we left," Neil replied.
"We were riding around in a car that was rigged to explode?" Van shouted. In the distance, they all heard a loud explosion.
"Yeah, we were fine as long as we didn't hit any hard bumps or make any sudden turns," Neil said.
"Let's just go inside," Van said as he let out another frustrated sigh. There was really no winning when it came to a conversation with Neil.
They grabbed their gear and hauled the pod down the stairs and into the underground bunker. The rock sealed up after them, leaving them in total darkness for a second. The lights slowly began to come on then, and Van could see tons of maps all over the walls. They were maps of the United States, and he could see the plans for movement and conquest.
"This is some messed up stuff," Neil whispered as they walked through the corridors. They were greeted by a very rank smell as they made their way into the central communications room. There was a large computer system with a huge monitor on the wall, as well as dozens of consoles. A solitary man was lying on the ground, dead.
"Ugh, he reeks," Sang said as she tried not to gag from the smell.
"Tell me about it," Neil said. "Come on, O'Hara, let's get this stiff some fresh air. Sang, you and the nerd twins set up the computer system."
Sang nodded at Van and Cindy. "Let's get to work."
There wasn't much difficulty in setting up the computer system. According to Cindy, these bunkers were powered by special reactors designed by Draco to stay running for a very long time, and the computers had no trouble interfacing with the pod. After about an hour of work, they were able to get the computers up and running, and the pod was connected.
Sang sat in the operator's chair and began to work on the computer. The holographic display showed various different statistics and schematics for the advanced Draco pod.
"Any luck?" Van asked as he hovered over her shoulder.
"I don't really know what I'm looking for," she replied. "There's a lot of data in here, and I wouldn't know what a living entity would even begin to look like."
"There!" Van said as he pointed to the main screen. The screen was starting to display the head of a brilliant white dragon.
"Yeah, that's definitely him," Sang said as she typed some more on the console. The speakers became engaged and they could hear a voice.
"Sang? Van? Is that you?" asked the voice.
"Jet!" Van shouted. "You're alive!"
"I suppose I am. I can hear you, but I cannot see you," Jet replied. "Fascinating. I believe you have accessed my consciousness directly. I have been looking forward to hearing your decision. Am I to believe you're going to aid my cause?"
"Yes," Van said as he stepped forward to look at the majestic dragon's face. "Sang and I will be moving in to rescue your people. And then after that, we want you to show us how to beam ourselves into other game systems, too."
"Are you going to be rescuing other races?"
"We're gonna undo everything that Draco has worked so hard for," Van replied. "Step by step and piece by piece, we're going to dismantle everything they have ever done."
"And that you shall, Van," Jet replied. "I have no doubt. And your government has chosen to aid you?"
"Not… uh, not entirely, but we're working on it," Sang said. "We might be able to figure out some way to persuade them later on, but for right now, they want to keep all of this hush hush. So we're doing it off the record."
"I understand," Jet replied. I should warn you that this journey will be unlike anything that you have ever undertaken. I should be able to configure your pod through this interface, though. It will send your mind, your consciousness, into the game itself. From there, you will be able to construct your own body and begin to interface with the world. But it will be different."
"How so?"
"You've only played the game as it was being developed and refined. You will be jumping into a game that is technically a world. All of the players there will be Draco pros. They will all be a part of the cause. You will have no friends, no allies. Only one another to rely on."
Van chewed on that. This made the game sound even more dangerous than it had been before. "Jet, are you… are you able to transfer multiple people to the game?"
"I can transport as many as you want who are willing," Jet said.
"There are plenty of pods in the next room," Cindy said as she pointed to one of the large sealed doors. "These facilities were designed to keep Draco's game fully staffed even in the event of a nuclear apocalypse."
"But it's a one-way trip?" Van asked.
"Until you are able to establish a better connection, yes," Jet replied.
Van looked at Sang. "Send Neil out to find the best members of the Iron Dragons and ask them if they're looking for a real job."
Sang smiled and saluted Van. "Aye aye, sir!" She leapt up from her seat and rushed out to find Neil.
"I'm gonna go take a nap," Cindy said as she walked out of the room, as well, leaving Van all alone with the Xevov.
"You are really coming to save my race?" Jet asked.
"No," Van whispered as he put his hands on the beloved pod, the representation of everything that he had once held so dear that would now be put to good use. "I'm coming to save the universe."
Epilogue
Van stood before the nebula, unable to speak. Beside him was his closest friend, his loyal ally and his soon to be wife, Sang. They were standing on the bridge of a spacecraft and they were staring out at the infinite vastness of space. The craziest part about all of this was the fact that hanging around Van's neck was a pair of goggles. When he placed them over his eyes, they would transport him to the Elven Woods of G'thyril, where the warlike race of Anders was struggling against the Draco.
For twenty long years, Van and Sang had fought side by side against the evils of the Draco. With their leader dead, the Draco's ability to conquer was lost forever, but the efficiency of how they controlled their slave planets was startling brutal. The Xevov had been the first to be freed and, while the adventure had been something beyond Van's wildest dreams, each new planet was even crazier than the last.
But each race was grateful for the man and woman who came from earth to save their people. Race after race had pledged their allegiance to earth, and would even send gifts. One such gift had been the power for travel faster than light travel. A holiday had been made in honor of the day that the old Draco mothership had finally been discovered to be in orbit around the moon. And while the saga of Van and Sang was still continuing, their work was in the history books on many a planet.
And now they were heading to a place that they hadn't been to in a long, long time. They
were going back to earth.
"I wonder what's changed?" Sang asked as she placed her hand on the railings and leaned forward.
"Probably everything," Van said. "All of that new tech they received, it probably changed the entire way the world operates."
"Yeah," Sang said. "But I hope the beaches are still there."
"Still dead-set on a beach wedding?" Van asked.
"If not on earth, then definitely in one of the simulations," Sang said as she pointed to the goggles hanging from his neck.
"These things are war simulators, not toys," Van retorted.
"Yeah, like you don't use them to play Dungeons and Dragons with Fredlin and the gang," Sang chuckled.
Van smiled at her. He didn't really remember when his feelings for her had transitioned from friendship to love. But he knew that fighting alongside her every day for twenty years had left him realizing that he could never imagine a world in which he wasn't with her. He'd asked her to marry him when they hadn't officially even been dating, and much to his surprise, she had said yes. They would continue to do the work of saving the universe together, until the end of their lives. And Draco's influence was far-reaching, but Van was confident they would continue to free each planet. Someday, the universe would be free of this scourge, and then Van could finally rest. He had heard news that a bunch of people from earth had been working to recreate Dragon Kings of the New World, and for the most part, development seemed to be going well. It was only a matter of time before Van would finally be able to return to the place that had once been his home.
"Oh, we got a message from Neil," Sang said. "He just escaped from an Ecuadorian prison."
"That's good to hear," Van said.
"And he's going to be at the wedding, too!"
"Wonderful," Van said through gritted teeth. The best part about space travel was being far, far away from that psychopath.
Sang giggled a little and leaned her head against Van's shoulder. "Can you really believe this is real life?"
"Sometimes I wonder if I'm wearing the goggles," Van replied as he wrapped his arms around her.
