by Vowron Prime
MC raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry, that’s not what I meant. The fact that you even still exist shows your tenacity, and I am sure that you have some seriously high-caliber people on your side. What I’m saying is, despite all of their sacrifices, that motherfucker is still in power, and you all still run and hide. It’s not enough.”
“Thwarting the Legatus is more difficult than you could possibly imagine. It is not just him; he has the backing of the Dyn. They are an enemy that cannot be fought!”
“Agreed, and that’s exactly your problem. If you try to fight an enemy a hundred times larger and better equipped than you, you’re gonna fail. You need to level the playing field just a bit before you even think about fighting back.”
Sareen narrowed her eyes at MC—suspicious, and intrigued. “How?”
“I have some ideas, but I’d rather not say at this moment. I do believe that I can get us there, though. Look, even if there’s a tiny chance that I’m right, isn’t it worth the risk? Isn’t that worth fighting for?”
She gazed at the them for a long moment, the chandelier of flesh above them casting an amber glow upon her impossibly perfect features. She walked to a nearby wall. Closing her eyes, she touched a squishy panel for several seconds until an amber crystal the size of her palm pushed out from within the organic wall. Almost like it was being birthed.
“Ultimators will soon descend upon this place, so I must be brief. This crystal contains classified information about the Legatus’s resources in the area. Know this—he can reinforce his military presence on this planet ten-fold at any time by simply calling for reinforcements via the transit gateway teleporter. You will also find some access codes within the crystal. Consider them time-limited, and one-time use, as they automatically cycle every three days. Use them wisely.”
Nova nodded. “Thank you. We shall put this to good use.”
“So, how do we contact the Resistance?” MC asked.
“There is no singular Resistance and, though it pains me to admit it, our intelligence network is far too thin to be of any real concern to the Dyn. The cells on Kelruhn survive by hiding and fleeing. Undercover operatives like myself have it comparatively better.
“So, do not contact them. They will contact you if they so desire. I have included an encrypted signal within the crystal—broadcast that if you wish to make contact. That said, I can’t make any promises as to whether you will receive a response.”
Sareen also handed Nova a palm-sized computer with a holographic display.
“This terminal contains maps of the area and is connected to the Dyn global network. Following this map, you should be able to avoid their forces. As with all tools, it is not perfect—Ultimators and other secret military assets will not register.”
“How can we thank yo—”
“How can we trust you?” MC said, cutting Nova off.
“Well, I suppose if you manage to leave this cavern alive, you’ll know one way or another, won’t you?”
“Magnus, she’s been so gracious. How can you suspect her at this point?” Nova admonished.
MC wasn’t buying it. He’d been burned far too many times to take anything Sareen said at face value. For all he knew, she was stalling for time until more Dyn forces got here.
“When your people see us gone, won’t they suspect you?”
She nodded sadly. “I’ve lost far too much to care about my own life anymore. If I can help those who would oppose the Dyn, it is the least I can do. Especially if you say you have a plan. I am the one trusting you, here. Please do not betray my trust.”
“I won’t. Sounds like we’d better make ourselves scarce then. We found what we came for, right?”
“Ah! Sareen, one more thing. Do you have any Ultimator parasite inhibitors on hand?”
The Resistance Dyn shook her head. “I can understand why you would ask for this, but I am sorry, I do not.”
“What about medical nanites? Even if they are unprogrammed, I can handle that myself.”
“Why would you—”
Muffled thumps near the entrance cut her off.
“Hurry!” Sareen said, her voice filled with panic. “I shall escort you to the nearest exit, but apart from misdirecting our hunter-killers to avoid your escape route, there is little I can do to help. You will have to make your own way out.”
She rushed over to some metal machinery and handed Nova a clear vial of graphite-colored sand.
MC shook his head. “Escort won’t be necessary. We have… a somewhat special form of transportation.”
“Ah yes, your vairo-syken. I had wondered where it went.”
To Sareen’s shock, MC proceeded to relocate a large hole in the glass-like material that formed a floor-to-ceiling window, exposing the room to a sheer drop to the ocean a thousand feet below.
As if on cue, Eiga rose from the abyss to meet them, his magic glands glowing crimson.
“As I said, special transport.”
“Wait! Can you... rough me up a bit? It will appear more convincing if it looked like we fought.”
MC looked around the room. “Happy to help,” he said, then utterly wrecked the luxurious room. From the furniture to the floor to the walls, he relocated almost everything into a state of disarray.
Before Sareen could say anything, he cut off her right arm at the elbow. A geyser of warm red blood painted the ceiling, the walls, the floor.
The Dyn Praetorian screamed, her cry shaking MC to his core. Though he was loath to admit it, he’d had to push through a strong mental resistance from his parasite in order to hurt her.
Nova’s eyes went wide. “Magnus!? H-how could you?”
He nodded to Sareen who reciprocated the gesture through gritted teeth. He then scooped up his angel and teleported them onto a hovering Eiga, seating her behind him before directing the dragon away from the pillar.
“It wouldn’t be believable if I didn’t do at least that much. Your people can restore her arm without any issue, right?”
“Of course, but—”
“Then we’re good.”
Nova didn’t argue.
With MC’s stealth field active, the three managed to fly to the other end of the enormous space in silence—a journey of several minutes. They were not pursued, likely on account of Sareen’s influence.
MC had to admit that things could’ve ended up so much worse if they had been found by a real Dyn overseer instead, though if the Resistance had been tracking them, it made some sense that they’d send an agent to intercept.
He admonished himself. Why did he listen to Nova? He should’ve said no, but saying no to her was just so damn hard these days.
“Nova?” he asked softly. The energy dampener thankfully nullified any wind noise, allowing them to converse freely. “What we did back there, infiltrating that pillar? Reckless. We should have avoided that place entirely.”
Her gaze fell. “Yes. I apologize, my emotions may have gotten the better of me.”
“Look, even if you come up with a crazy plan, we’ll be all right so long as I can evaluate it with a cool head. The problem is, I have an incredibly hard time saying no to you these days, and the stronger you feel about something, the less I can resist your influence.”
Nova fell silent, then placed a hand on his back. “I am truly sorry, Magnus. I am cognizant of the parasite’s effects, but sometimes I forget that it affects my every action. I will mind my words in the future, this I swear to you.”
“Please do so, or we may not make it out alive next time.”
Nova never failed to surprise him. She’d go from a meek, clumsy girl one moment to a strong-willed goddess the next. To have weathered everything they’d gone through and not let it faze her was impressive, to say the least. Her response was a relief, because his next words would require some of that strength from her.
“We need to come back here to destroy this. The mutated Zevan, the pillars, everything.”
“I know…”
“
Many of your kind will die.”
“I know,” Nova replied, tightening her grip on his armor.
They flew in silence for the remainder of the journey, arriving unimpeded at the other end of the expanse. Whatever Sareen had done, it had worked beautifully, and thanks to Nova’s new computer, they soon found a suitable tunnel that would lead back to the surface, far away from their point of entry.
MC had Eiga set down only after they’d flown several miles into the tunnels of cold black rock, ascending all the while. Nova’s eyes had been glued to her terminal the entire time.
“Magnus, this is astounding. There is so much data here, so much we could use against the Legatus!”
“So Sareen’s intel checks out?”
She looked up at him. “Yes! With this, we can begin to fight back. Magnus, we might actually have a chance!”
MC didn’t immediately respond. Instead, he climbed off of Eiga onto the frigid surface, untying the rucksack before dumping it against the tunnel’s wall. He hated to kill that innocent flame of hope, but it was best she understood their grim reality as soon as possible.
“Nova, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. We’re just two people on the run. You’re public enemy number one, and I’m a ticking time bomb. We’re just a liability. What reason would the Resistance have to take people like us under their wing? Sareen said it herself, that our value lies in being the Legatus’s favorite prey.”
He sat down, keeping his back off the icy wall. “And from what she said, it doesn’t sound like that Resistance is doing all that great, either. No, we need another plan. Something better. Something bolder, if we’re gonna make this happen.
“And you know what? I’m as sick of running as you are. I’m sick of hiding, of being up against a superior enemy. I’m so damn tired!”
He got up and paced. Nova froze at MC’s rare emotional outburst. In fact, this might have been the first time she’d seen him act in such a manner.
“I’m the Machine, goddammit! The best damn merc on Earth, yet ever since your people brought me here, it’s been one disaster after the next, and you know what? I’m done with this. I’m so fucking done with it. This ends now.”
After several seconds, Nova finally said, “What would you propose?”
“We need to get organized. We need to inform the Empress and the other Zevan on this planet exactly what your people are up to. We need an army. We need intel, and we need military resources. Lots of fucking resources. A fortified base would be nice.”
“You are talking about starting a war with the Dyn?”
He stopped pacing. “No. I’m talking about winning a war. I’m talking,” he pointing off into the distance, “about destroying an enemy who plays at being God. You brought me here from Earth, right?”
“Yes, via our transit gateway system.”
“Right, your teleporter. And that thing is somewhere on this planet, right?”
“Yes… In fact, it is quite close by. The immense energy required to stabilize such a long-distance wormhole generates an inordinate amount of heat. The arctic conditions act as a natural coolant.”
“Okay, and is there a size limit to what can be brought over?”
“I believe there is, though it is quite large. We use the transit gateway to shuttle our fleets across the galaxy after all. But the larger the wormhole, the more energy is required to stabilize it. Large long-range teleports can take up to a day to charge.”
MC grinned.
“So. I’ve got an idea.”
Ten
“I still think this plan is insane!” Nova whispered from behind MC’s back as they rode atop Eiga.
They must have covered almost fifty miles since leaving the cavern—twisting and maneuvering Eiga’s huge bulk through some of the narrower passages.
“Crazier than infiltrating that pillar?” he called over his shoulder, his voice slurring from the biting cold.
The cavern’s warmth was long gone, their surroundings literally frozen over with a layer of ice. Nothing grew down here, nothing lived.
“Yes! Yours is far riskier. You are mad. Truly mad!”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong. We now have intel. We know the teleporter’s location, defenses, sensor positioning, how many Dyn to expect. Hell, we even have the blueprint layout of the facility. Sareen’s intel’s a hell of a lot better than she gives herself credit for. This is a slam dunk. At least, compared to the pillar.”
It was just Eiga, Nova, MC, and the vast expanse of darkness, but at least they didn’t have to deal with any mutated creatures down here. Still, they’d be thoroughly lost were it not for Nova’s terminal keeping them on course. It put them deep into the heart of the cavern network, almost half a mile underground.
“Sure, it’s risky,” he continued, “but isn’t this worth fighting for? This is how we start to fight back. The foundation of things to come. Sanctuary will give us a beacon for the Resistance to rally around.”
In a silence broken only by the cracking of ice and the swooping of Eiga’s wings, they flew for hour after endless hour. MC kept his energy dampener off, given that they’d chosen routes around Dyn patrols—thanks to Nova’s newfound terminal—and Eiga had gotten good enough at understanding their intentions that he now needed Midar pings only for course changes and landings.
They eventually set down near a frozen cavern wall, the ground slippery and wet.
“You sure this is the spot?” MC asked as he hopped off, the ice crunching beneath his boots. “I’d have expected more security around a weak point like this.”
She gave him a look. “And who exactly would be capable of burrowing tunnels on demand? Not even an Ultimator could do such a thing.”
Well, she did have a point. Even for him, to say that this plan was unorthodox would be doing it a disservice. It was straight-up batshit crazy.
MC lent Nova a hand as she hopped off the dragon, her inconceivably light weight allowing her to land with the grace of a cat. With that kind of mass, her wings actually provided a bit of lift. If things went well, maybe he’d see about strapping some rockets to her back. Now that would make for quite the sight.
“This is your last chance,” she said, gazing into his dark eyes, “to turn back. To see your home one last time. If you do this…”
“I will never get to see Nina again. Don’t you think I just want to hit the big red reset button and pretend none of this ever happened? But I can’t. We can’t! There is no going back, not for us!”
MC hesitated, patting Nova’s shoulder. “Sorry. I know you’re just for looking out for me, and for that, you have my thanks. But I’d never expose Nina to the horrors of this world. If keeping her on Earth means keeping her safe, I will gladly pay that price any day of the week.”
“You truly love her, don’t you?”
“That I do… And the worst part is, I may never know if she even is safe.”
He plopped himself down, leaning against Eiga for his warmth, and narrated his tale. Of how he’d been on a mission to save his only living family member, of the garbled comms chatter he’d received right before he was whisked away to Kelruhn—which he’d believed to be virtual reality for the longest time. How he’d had to live with the agony of not knowing whether she was even still alive. It all felt like such a distant memory now. It was hard to believe that was just over a month ago.
By the end, Nova’s face was wet with tears. “I’m so sorry, Magnus. I had no idea,” she whispered, squeezing his shoulder.
“Hey,” he stared back into her black eyes, “I need you with me on this one. Every moment we stay alive is another chance to turn things around, right? So don’t give up on me. Not when we’re this close.”
Nova smiled. “Thank you, Magnus. Please do not fret about that. I may enjoy complaining, but you know how much this means to me. A chance to strike back? To make a difference however I can… I would go to great lengths for such a thing.”
“We’ll get there. You read
y?”
She nodded, but immediately scrunched her face in pain, bringing a hand to her head.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
She looked around, confused. “It is... it is nothing. Merely a minor headache. Even with our enhanced bodies, such things happen from time to time.”
“You’re sure?”
This was the first time she’d ever had any kind of issue, but then, he’d only known her for a couple of weeks.
“Yes, Magnus. Thank you for the concern.”
“All right,” he replied, not totally convinced. “Guess that leaves just one last farewell.”
MC unhooked his rucksack from Eiga.
“Time to say goodbye for now, big guy.”
Eiga craned his neck, alternating between looking at Nova and himself. He’d heard them talk about their plan so it shouldn’t have come as a complete shock, but his grasp of the language was still tenuous at best. Never in a million years would MC have imagined that a beast straight out of a horror movie could look so sad. He whinnied as Nova patted his metallic black snout, and his tails drooped.
“We’ve not known each other long, but I have truly cherished our time together. We could not have survived even this far had you not carried us on your strong back. Thank you…”
He nuzzled her face as gently as he could in response, prompting her to giggle as she hugged his snout.
MC cleared his throat. “You’ve been a good friend, bud. I’m, uh, I’m sorry for not giving you a name when we met. Fake reality and all that.”
Eiga made a sound he could’ve sworn was a snort.
“Anyway, stay safe out there. Once we’ve established ourselves, we’ll set up a radar beacon so you can come and find us. Make sure you do. I don’t want to have to search the planet to find ya, you hear? May we meet again, and when we do, I think I’ll be able to give you a nice home. Nicer than anything you had at that oasis.” Then he looked to Nova. “Ready?”
Eiga attempted to tease him by poking his sharp snout into MC’s cheek, but the vairo-syken was a moment too late. MC activated the relocator and he was gone.
