The Syndicate's Journey
Page 17
“So...it isn’t fast, but it also isn’t stationary. I don’t think we should stay here much longer.” Her voice sounded as if she was worried.
Major General Lokhorst moved her hands in her suit pockets. “Hmm... you have a valid point. But where exactly is it going?”
“I’m not sure. We could always fly somewhere else and try to land somewhere?” Major General Brentari asked.
“Yeah, we could do that.”
A faint noise that sounded as if something was popping was heard in the distance. The sound seemed like it was slowly becoming closer and louder. The Major Generals looked around to see where the noise was coming from.
“What is that noise?” asked Major General Brentari.
“I have no clue.”
The noise continued to become louder and seemed as if it was headed towards them.
Major General Lokhorst looked down and started to see small cracks in the iceberg. “Uh... Br-Brentari?!”
“What is it?” She turned around to look at her.
Major General Lokhorst pointed down. “The ice is cracking. That’s what that noise is!”
The Major Generals looked at one another and knew that this iceberg was soon to be in pieces soon enough.
“We have to get off of it!” shouted Major General Brentari.
“Come on, then, let’s go!” yelled Major General Lokhorst.
“What about that fish?” Major General Brentari shouted. “We have to get it.”
“We won’t get any more scans if we fall in the water, Brentari! We have to leave it! Let’s go!”
They turned around and ran towards the Drakdel, careful enough not to put all their weight on each foot as they ran. They could feel the ice underneath their feet as it had started to crack more all around them. As they reached the ramp, Major General Lokhorst pressed the button as fast as she could, noticing all around them the iceberg cracking with pieces starting to break off into the ocean.
Come on! Open!
The doors slid open, and she ran inside to her chair on the left. She swiped with her left hand, and her INH opened onto the screen to pilot the Drakdel. Major General Lokhorst looked to her left and noticed that Major General Lokhorst had just made it inside of the Drakdel.
“Fly us off this, iceberg!” yelled Major General Brentari as she turned around and pressed the button to shut the doors and then ran towards her chair and sat down. She took off her OBA and let it hang from her neck.
Major General Lokhorst tapped on “Fly,” and the Drakdel recalled its three legs into the base, and it started to hover in the air. Major General Lokhorst took off her OBA and let it rest on her neck as well. “Where do you want to go?”
“Anywhere but here!” She spoke while trying to catch her breath.
Major General Lokhorst tapped “Auto-pilot,” and then stood up from her chair and walked over to the window that was now overlooking the iceberg and looked down at it.
“Whoa Brentari, we nearly escaped!” Major General Lokhorst stood up and walked over to the window. “Come here and look with me.”
Major General Brentari walked next to her as they were overlooking the window and looked out from it. They no longer saw the iceberg that they were on; instead, they saw much smaller icebergs all floating around on the water.
“I told you I didn’t want to go swimming.” Major General Lokhorst jokingly said.
Major General Brentari gave her a fake smile and continued to look down at the iceberg. There was something that was producing bubbles in the water.
“You see those bubbles?” asked Major General Lokhorst.
“Where?”
“Right there, right by that big piece and the four smaller ones.” Major General Lokhorst pointed to the location.
Major General Brentari squinted and saw the bubbles coming up from the ocean. “What is that?” asked Major General Brentari.
“I just said that those are bubbles.”
“No, Lokhorst, look!” More bubbles started to appear at the surface of the water. Right before their eyes, another creature appeared from the depths of the ocean, and it shoved the icebergs aside as it surfaced the water, pushing them with little to no force at all.
“What...is...that...?” Major General Brentari softly spoke.
“I-I... don’t...know...” Major General Lokhorst was speechless. “But…. it is huge!”
The creature had a long duck-bill mouth that opened wide as it jumped from the water into the atmosphere. The creature’s canines protruded from its bill, overlapping it. The creature had small, black, beady eyes and scales all over its body. The creature had hands and feet that were webbed. Its nails were long, black, and sharp. From the back of its head down to its tail, it had a long fin that protruded outward. The creature’s tail was covered in scaled, and it appeared to be very bulky. The tail looked powerful enough to break anything in its way. The creature started to break apart the remaining ice that was left unbroken with its tail and its claws.
“That thing is huge!” exclaimed Major General Brentari.
“I wonder if we had stayed on it much longer would we have fallen into the water, or would this thing had eaten us?” She motioned to the creature.
“I don’t even want to think about that.” Major General Brentari moved her hands on the window, and she looked down at the creature and gazed at it. Major General Lokhorst swiped her right hand over her left arm with the bracelet, and her INH appeared over the bracelet. She then pointed at the creature in the water and then tapped on “scan.”
◆◆◆
SCANNING……………………ONE MOMENT PLEASE
◆◆◆
Major General Brentari looked to her right and saw that she was scanning the creature. “Oh no, I totally forgot to do that!”
“Don’t worry. I got it this time. This is definitely something to collect data on.”
“It sure is!” Major General Brentari’s shifted looking back at the creature, and she continued to watch it move about the water almost as if it was dancing. How the creature swam along the waves with such precision without the water overtaking it was something else. The creature appeared to have dominion over the water.
Major General Lokhorsts’ INH appeared, and she threw the hologram forward for Major General Brentari to see.
◆◆◆
SCAN COMPLETE
CREATURE UNKNOWN POSSIBLE ORNITHORHYNCHUS ANATINUS.
SHARP INCISOR FANGS DETECTED
POSSIBLE GANOID, ARAPAIMA SCALES DETECTED
UNKNOWN LIFE FORM DETECTED
◆◆◆
“Well, at least the scanner gave us some sort of information back.” Major General Lokhorst replied.
“Yeah, that’s sort of relieving! Good thing we’re in the sky, I wonder if we were lower if that creature would try and attack us.”
“I wouldn’t want to find out. Let’s get out of here and upload the information to General Deschner.” Major General Lokhorst turned from the window and walked back to her chair, and Major General Brentari followed her, and they sat down in their chairs.
“Sure, okay. Want to call General Deschner now?”
“Might as well. Before we do that, let me just set the Drakdel to fly away from this area.”
“I don’t blame you.”
Major General Lokhorst swiped her right hand over her left arm where her bracelet was, and her INH appeared. She moved her finger over to the right side of the screen and tapped “Auto-pilot.” The Drakdel started slowly flying on its own. She moved her hand to the left side of the screen and increased the speed slowly on the gauge. She swiped her hand left and pressed “Call,” then she scrolled down to find “General Deschner, Koba” and tapped it, and it began calling. She swiped her hand towards the computer to project the hologram onto it.
CALLING GENERAL DESCHNER
A moment later, the screen flickered, and he answered the call and appeared on the screen.
“Hello, Major Generals.” His voice was almost monotone, and hi
s face was still.
“Hello General Deschner.” Major General Lokhorst replied.
“Yes, Hello General Deschner.” Major General Brentari replied.
“What may I help you with?” he asked.
“Well, I don’t want to sound prideful or anything, but we have a lot of valuable scans for you.” Major General Lokhorst smiled.
“Oh, really?” General Deschner asked. “What makes you think they are valuable?”
Major General Lokhorsts’ facial expression drastically changed. She was not expecting General Deschner to make a questioning accusation that the scans were valuable or not.
“Well,” Major General Brentari began to speak. “I believe what Major General Lokhorst is trying to say is that they are valuable because, well... they are the first of its kind. No one else had ever scanned what we had before.”
“Oh? Do tell.” General Deschner stated. “No, as a matter of fact, just send them to me, and I’ll see for myself.” His demeanor changed in an instant, and he gave them a welcoming smile.
“Sure, we can do that. We took scans of different things each, so we both will have to upload those to you.” Major General Brentari replied.
“That’s fine. You can go ahead and upload those to me, then.”
“Right now?” asked Major General Brentari.
“Yeah... why not right now?” he asked and grinned.
“Oh, I was just making sure... that’s all!”
“Well, go ahead and upload those to me. I’ll be waiting.”
Major General Brentari looked to her left at Major General Lokhorst and nodded as she swiped her INH open and tapped on “Scan” then tapped on “Recent Scan” and then selected the scans of the creature that almost attacked her and Varenok’s atmosphere and then tapped on “Upload” and scrolled to find “General Deschner, Koba” and tapped on it.
◆◆◆
UPLOADING……………………………PLEASE WAIT
◆◆◆
“There you go, General Deschner. I’m uploading my scans to you right now.” Major General Brentari stated.
“Good, I see that. Thank you, Brentari.” He smiled coyly. “What about you, Major General Lokhorst?”
She swiped left on her INH and then tapped on “Scan” then she tapped on “Recent scan” then she had selected the scans of the iceberg and the giant creature that broke the iceberg. She then scrolled down to find “General Deschner, Koba” and then “Upload.”
◆◆◆
UPLOADING…………………………PLEASE WAIT
◆◆◆
“Ah, spoke too soon!” replied General Deschner. “Thank you to both of you for your service in the Syndicate.”
“Thank you, General Deschner.” Major General Lokhorst remarked.
“Yes, thank you...” Major General Brentari looked away from the screen. We almost died back there.”
“What do you mean?” asked General Deschner.
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll be okay.”
“No, I will worry. What happened?” General Deschner appeared to be sincere when he asked.
“Well...When we landed on Varenok, we had landed on an iceberg, and after a few scans, we noticed that it started to crack and break underneath us. Then we ran back to the Drakdel and was able to hover in the air, which is when we saw the creature that broke the iceberg. Major General Lokhorst sent you the scan of it.” Major General Brentari said.
“Wow. Well, you’re safe now, right?”
They nodded.
“Good I am glad to hear it. That’s all that matters, then is your safety.” He smiled trying to comfort them through the screen. “Did you have any samples other than scans?”
“We had a specimen, but we didn’t have any tools to take samples from...” Major General Brentari explained. “…or any way to retrieve it.”
“What happened to it?”
“Well, you know that creature I just told you about. Well, this thing jumped out of the water first, then that big creature.”
“Oh. That is quite interesting.” General Deschner pondered. “I wonder if it is related.”
“What do you mean?” asked Major General Lokhorst.
“Maybe that small thing was swimming away from that big thing?” General Deschner moved his hand left and tapped on the files that he received from them as he spoke. “I mean fish do tend to eat other fish and by the looks of it, that smaller creature looks like it could be used as a sort of bait to other fish. Maybe it just was in the wrong place.”
“Wow... that does make a lot of sense.” Major General Brentari thought.
“Yeah, like that is a pretty accurate hypothesis, General.”
“Well, it is my job to know how creatures react here on Nuwurth, and I just predict that they act the same elsewhere. I could be wrong, though.”
“No, no, I don’t think so!” retorted Major General Brentari.
“Well, thank you. I thought your Drakdel had tools for specimens, besides the vials which can be used for that.” General Deschner scratched his freshly shaven face. “Whenever you land, send me your location, and I’ll send a supply drop to your location with the tools and anything else you might need.”
“Really?” Major General Brentari smiled. “That would be wonderful!”
“Good, it’s settled. Send me the coordinates when you can.”
“Sure thing!” Major General Brentari acknowledged.
“Well, I must go so I can take care of the supply drop for you then.” He smiled. “Keep up the good work, both of you!”
“Wait a second... General Deschner?” Major General Lokhorst stammered.
“What is it?”
“Have you heard from Major Generals Solbrig and Reingle? I know we haven’t.” she looked at Major General Brentari.
“As a matter of fact, I just got off the call with them moments before you called me.”
“Really?” asked Major General Brentari.
“Mhm.” He nodded his head. “They’re doing fine, scouring Snakardekus, and having fun like you two.”
Good, then they are still alive then. Major General Lokhorst thought.
“Any more questions, Major General Lokhorst?” he asked.
“No, General Deschner. Good to hear that they’re doing well, though!”
“Yes, you’re right! Okay, well, I must go. Contact me if you need anything!”
“Goodbye, General Deschner.” Major Generals Brentari and Lokhorst said after another.
“Goodbye, both of you.”
CALL ENDED WITH GENERAL DESCHNER.
“Well, good to hear that Major Generals Reingle and Solbrig are doing well, right?” asked Major General Brentari.
“That is good I wonder if they’re having the same amount of luck as we are.”
“One can only wonder...”
“Why don’t we call them? I’m sure a friendly face would be a relief!” Major General Lokhorst asked.
“You know...” Major General Brentari smiled. “That’s not a bad idea at all!”
“Let’s find somewhere to land first, then we can call them, alright?” asked Major General Lokhorst.
“Good idea.”
CHAPTER TEN
Lieutenant General Armitage was sitting in his favorite chair in the Nexus. The black chair had faded slightly from wear and usage, but it still was comfortable to him. Lieutenant General Armitage swiped left with his right hand while looking at his INH. He was looking at pictures of Snakardekus on one half of his screen and Varenok on the other half.
I have to get in contact with the Major Generals and tell them what this whole mission is really about...
Lieutenant General Armitage heard the doors slide open and heavy footsteps coming his way. He knew who that was without looking but looked anyways and greeted Lieutenant General dee Veyra.
“Hey there, dee Veyra.”
“Hey, Armitage, what are you doing?”
“Oh...uh, you know, just checking things out.”
“Like what?” she smiled.
“Well...” He couldn’t tell her just yet; he had to slowly ease his way to tell her what was happening behind her back. “Well... I was just looking at the progress of certain equipment and weaponry that MOD is working on.”