by Alex Knight
An enemy power warden sprang into the midst of their group with Heroic Leap. She came down with a vengeance, hammer already swinging. Kaiden raised his own to respond but a well-timed Energy Grip from Titus yanked the would-be attacker to the edge of the group where she was pounced on by the Maximus guards.
“Odditor!” Kaiden shouted again, staring up into the chaos above them. Still no response.
“We’re holding, but we can’t do it forever,” Dawson grunted from where he was hammering away at a shield warden. “We have to get through that gate sooner rather than later.”
“Can we do it ourselves?” Kaiden asked, turning to face the thing. His visor pulled up its health pool. It didn’t give numbers, but percentage, as usual. Stray attacks and flying debris had likely hit the gate during the battle but it’d made little difference. The thing was still at ninety-eight percent health.
If we can’t get air support, we’re going to need every fighter we’ve got to turn on this thing. It should be enough damage to bring it down. But it’ll mean losing the army; while they’re focused on the gate, the wardens will take over the battle. We have to get inside, though—
Something exploded overhead and Kaiden ducked away as sparks rained down on him. He glanced up to see a line of ballistic rounds slamming into the surface of the gate, scouring dents and scars across its surface in flashes of fire.
“Let’s see what this big bastard’s made of,” came a voice over comms.
Ellenton! Kaiden spun to see the Borrelly drifting over the battlefield. It was at full speed, though, drifting past impossibly fast and only able to keep firing on the gate for another second before it had to pull off. Three enemy fighters were behind it, guns blazing and lighting its shields up whenever they hit. The proximity defense drones looked to have had a rough time. Half of them were gone and those that were left were clearly damaged. They struggled to keep up with the Borrelly and fire back at the pursuing fighters.
“Can’t slow down,” Ellenton said as her engines carried her up to circle back. “But I can keep making passes. Probably.” The fighters pursued her high into the sky before she pulled a hard turn and came back for another strafing run.
The second stream of bullets tore into the gate and Kaiden watched its health drop.
89%...
82%...
76%...
Good progress, but still not enough.
The Borrelly took a direct hit to one of its engines and veered sharply off course. Ellenton just managed to pull up before plowing into the ground.
“I’m here, uh, here,” Odditor’s voice suddenly sprang to life in Kaiden’s ear. “Bit busy, though. Apologies.” Crashes and explosions sounded as he spoke, crackling through the comm channel.
“We need this gate down. This whole thing fails if we don’t get through this gate.”
“Barricade the door!” Whenstone’s voice suddenly shouted out. “We’re dealing with a bit of a situation here. Boarders on the ship. I don’t think we can stop them from taking the bridge.”
“Bastards aren’t taking, taking my ship!” Odditor cursed, more malice in his voice than Kaiden had ever heard before.
“Come at me, then!” roared Eqokkhabone, the shield warden who’d been beside Titus. He was very low on health, his shield was overloaded, and he’d obviously taken a massive hit to the side considering the state of his armor.
“I don’t need a shield to tank for this par—”
He was cut off by an explosion as an enemy blast warden several paces away who’d been charging an Improved Kinetic Grenade was killed. The attack fired off anyway, though, falling to the ground and swallowing Eqokkhabone in its explosion.
Party member killed!
“I mean, he wasn’t wrong…” Thorne said, frowning at the aftermath. “He did technically tank that…”
“Odditor!” Kaiden said again, turning away from the sorry sight and focusing on his desperate plan. “If you’re going to crash... can you crash in this direction? Into the gate?”
The only response was the sounds of fighting and then, shortly after, no sound at all as the channel went dead.
“It was a good plan,” Zelda said, frowning at him. “But we’re going to need another one.”
She was right.
“Ellenton, can you—” Kaiden began, but before he could finish, another voice cut him off.
“Captains,” Acton said through comms. “This ship is insured, yeah?”
What?
Kaiden just managed to piece together what was happening as a blur dropped out of the sky.
The Veritas II was hurtling toward them. It was in a bad way, shields down, an engine and several turrets gone, but it was still flying – and directly at the gate.
“The ship’s all paid up,” Zelda said, her words heavy. She too had realized what was happening.
“Very good, then. Captains,” Acton said, sounding far too cheery about the whole thing. “It’s been a pleasure. I’ll see you on the other side.”
The remaining guns of the Veritas II blazed to life, hurling everything they had at the gate. A group of fighters was on the ship’s tail, though. They chipped away at it, tearing chunks from its armor. But the armor was doing its job, because without it the shots would have been tearing components apart inside the Veritas II. As Kaiden watched, Acton fired what remained of the Tumbler torpedoes. They jumped from the ship all at once, falling for a moment before their thrusters kicked on. Several flipped over and hurtled back toward the pursuing fighters. The rest plunged into the gate in a series of rapid explosion.
Kaiden was cognizant of the gate’s health dropping but he ignored it, flinging himself instead beneath the Improved Barrier Titus had thrown up.
He had just enough time for one last look at the gate before the Veritas II hit it at full speed.
The ground shook. Kaiden’s ears exploded with a piercing ringing. Blinding light stabbed through his vision. Fire and debris swept across the battlefield in a shockwave so powerful it knocked everyone not under a barrier to the ground.
There was a moment of near-silence as the ringing faded from Kaiden’s ears. The smoke began to clear, but he wasn’t looking at that. No, he was looking at the flashing red text in the corner of his vision.
8%...
8%...
8%...
The gate was still standing. Barely, maybe, but it wasn’t destroyed.
The Veritas II hadn’t been enough. The gate was still standing, and the Warden Corps forces were closing in on all sides.
So close, and yet so far. Damn it!
“Kaiden! Look!” PlayaSlaya had waded out of the fighting and was gesturing wildly at the gate. “It’s open!”
Kaiden squinted as the smoke cleared further. And yes, sure enough, the gate was ajar! The rightmost door was pulled back a bit, open just enough for a small group to slip through. The impact from the Veritas II hadn’t been enough to destroy it completely but it had been enough to bust it open, it seemed.
“I didn’t realize damage states could do that,” Thorne said under her breath, frowning as she stared at the opening. “Normally it’s an all-or-nothing thing.”
“What are we waiting for?” PlayaSlaya shouted, pushing Kaiden toward the smoke clinging around the gate and the wreckage of the Veritas II. “Let’s get in there!”
“One way or another, it’s open,” Kaiden said. “Let’s go!”
He stumbled forward, running through the smoke and fire until the gate loomed in front of him. The gap was wide enough to slip through easily; Titus led the way, Kaiden went in after him, and then the rest of the group followed as well.
An Improved Burst Arrow came through the opening from outside and caught Kaiden in the shoulder. He spun to see the rear ranks of the warden army also charging in. They’d abandoned their fight with The Syndicate army to make a mad dash to defend the gate.
Dawson and his free wardens stepped in front of their charge.
“I got this,” the for
mer sergeant said. “You lot go with them!” he shouted to a group of free wardens that had fought their way to the gate. And with that, he turned back to the oncoming enemies and raised his hammer.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Warden HQ.
Kaiden couldn’t believe it.
We made it.
And from an initial scan of the room they were in – a sort of lobby with hallways leading off to either side – it didn’t seem there was anyone to fight them just yet. Probably that was on account of the massive damage to the space. In several areas the ceiling had collapsed and great chunks of stone had plummeted downward. Clearly many of the would-be defenders had been standing in the wrong places. Kaiden looked over them.
TankerFlanker **Deceased**
Warden Sergeant
Class: Power Warden
Level: 55
Harrison **Deceased**
Warden Captain
Class: Shield Warden
Level: 58
There were at least twenty dead wardens around the space. He would have thought the HQ would be more resistant to damage like this, especially given the strength of the gate. But with the skeleton crew of defenders gone, their job was that little bit easier, so he wasn’t complaining.
If it was calm inside the base, the fighting outside more than made up for it. Dawson and his free wardens were making a valiant stand. They needed to hold; if wardens caught them from the rear in close quarters like this, they would be doomed.
Kaiden pulled up his command module and redirected all their remaining forces to converge on the door.
“Help’s coming, Dawson. And once they do, we’ll storm this base. Secure it and broadcast the database,” he started to say, but was cut off as something massive rumbled through the floor.
“The gate!” Zelda shouted, pointing at it.
And she was right. It was moving.
The damaged door that had been busted open was sliding along its track now. The gap leading outside was narrowing by the moment. And then Kaiden saw why.
Dozens of drones were buzzing around the gate. But these weren’t proximity defense drones like they’d had around the Borrelly. These were repair drones. Their little arms and lasers were hard at work, and the gate’s health was replenishing by the moment.
The free wardens Dawson had sent after them ran as fast as they could, but the gate rumbled closed with a resounding echo. Moments later distant bangs echoed through it and Kaiden could see its health rising more slowly. The free wardens were trying to fight their way in, but their damage needed to outpace the drones’ repairs.
“Target the drones,” Kaiden said through command comms. “Take them down, then beat the gate.”
“Good thing we slipped through before that happened,” PlayaSlaya said, staring at the closed gate.
“I don’t think—” Thorne began, but PlayaSlaya cut her off with a gesture.
“We’re here. Let’s do this. Right, Kaiden?”
Kaiden nodded. He was right. They didn’t have time to waste. Having the rest of their forces with them would have been ideal, but they were inside the base now. Best to work with what they had. He used the command module to give an order for anyone that could to attack the gate, but based on how the battle had been going when the gate had closed, he doubted anyone would have time to follow that order anytime soon.
“I believe in this group,” he said, pushing any thought of the battle outside from his mind. “We made it this far. Now it’s time to finish this.”
As he spoke, his eyes flicked up to the timer at the top of his vision.
Shit. In all the chaos outside he’d forgotten about it. It was down to forty-five minutes now.
“Ellenton, Acton, Dawson, The Syndicate... our allies got us this far, but now their hopes rest with us,” he said, looking back to the group in front of him. “And the clock’s still ticking. We gotta move. Thorne, which way to the AFBS control room?”
For a moment, doubt clouded her face. What was up with her? Something seemed off. The moment passed, though, and Thorne gestured toward a hallway.
“It’s this way. Let’s be prepared for resistance. I don’t know why there’s no one here to stop us yet, but I don’t think we can count on that the whole way through.”
“I’ve got a hammer-gun that’s itching to be used if anyone steps up,” Zelda said.
“Ha! That’s the spirit,” PlayaSlaya said.
We made it, Kaiden thought as Thorne led the group out of the lobby and into a maze of hallways. While they jogged along, their medic, Skaia, healed anyone who’d taken damage.
“We’re closer now to victory than we’ve ever been,” Kaiden said, resisting the urge to celebrate. The job wasn’t done yet, but he could feel victory near at hand, so close he could almost reach out and touch it. “One last thing to do,” he said.
“Find the control room and broadcast Bernstein’s database,” Zelda said.
“Then we bring the whole rotten Party down,” Thorne added.
“Damn right!” Titus slammed his hammer against his shield with a cheer. “Let’s finish this.”
Forty-one minutes and counting…
Thorne checked the timer. We’re cutting it close, but we’re almost there. And technically, the countdown represents the quickest the Party can enact Killswitch, which means, in theory, we could have more time than we think. Best not to chance it, though.
She’d already been moving at a jog, leading the group through the maze of tunnels and closed-in passages that was Warden HQ, but now she picked up the pace even more, approaching a sprint.
She’d been expecting danger at every turn, but none had arisen. The Corps must have committed nearly their entire force to the battle outside. It’d certainly explain their surprising numbers. And then the cave-ins caused by the Veritas II had taken out most of those left behind. She’d spotted several side corridors on the way that’d entirely collapsed, no doubt trapping countless wardens in other areas of the base.
“Here. This is it,” Thorne said, turning one last corner – into another empty hallway – and coming to a stop in front of an unmarked door. It was plain, gray metal set into the stone wall. It’d been carved out of the asteroid’s heart, just like the rest of the base.
“This is the security checkpoint for the broadcast control room. I’ll go first,” Thorne said. “Nando, give me a hand?”
He nodded his agreement and she loaded up a swing of her hammer. He reared back as well, one of his brawler abilities active, his fist simmering with restrained fire.
They hit the door at the same time and it exploded inward in a burst of flame. The remains of it flew clear across the room. Thorne charged in after it, hammer at the ready.
But there was nobody in the room. Completely against protocol, the security checkpoint was empty. There should have been at least five wardens guarding it. Preferably power wardens, seeing as they’d be extra effective in such tight quarters. Instead, a few computer terminals beeped quietly, their screens blank as they sat in sleep mode. An air vent hissed above. The lights flickered ever so slightly. The walls of the room were hewn stone, smooth but for the repetitive, swirling circles where the drill had bored out the room. Their dark color always made the space feel darker, even when it was fully lit. From somewhere far above, an explosion sounded and just the slightest bit of dust trickled down.
The room really was empty, Thorne confirmed, checking every nook and cranny again and looking close at each one. She kept her hammer at the ready as she inched around the room, prepared to lunge at the first hint of an opponent.
And still, nothing.
Empty.
“That’s it, then?” Kaiden asked, too much excitement in his voice as he gestured toward a door at the far side of the room.
“That’s it,” she confirmed. Beyond it was the control console for the All-Frequencies Broadcast System, hidden deep at the center of the asteroid. It’d always spooked her going down there – seemed the game devs ha
d had a bit too much fun making it a spooky space cave instead of the functional space it was supposed to be.
“What are we waiting for, then?” Kaiden asked.
“Something’s wrong,” Thorne said again.
Kaiden looked like he believed her, but his excitement won out.
“PlayaSlaya,” he said. “Let’s leave some guards here to cover our backs, yeah? Just to make sure no one surprises us while we’re in there—”
A hiss shot through the room and Thorne snapped into motion, hammer raised once more, eyes scanning for the source of the noise.
The door to the broadcast control console. It slid open with a hiss to reveal a figure standing just inside. Its features were obscured by the shadows of the tunnel leading to the console room.
“So close,” the figure said, and its voice echoed away down the tunnel behind it. “You almost made it, you really did.” The figure took a step forward and Thorne cursed.
“You almost made it,” Werner said, a too-pleased smile on his face. “Though that was our plan, after all.”
Chapter Sixty
Werner10
Warden Captain
Class: Blast Warden
Faction: Warden Corps
Level: 60
Kaiden’s visor brought up information on Werner as he walked out of the tunnel and the door to the broadcast control room hissed shut.
“What do you mean your ‘plan?’” Kaiden snapped. They were too close to be stopped now. Especially not by one smug bootlicker.
“This,” Werner said, stretching his arms and gesturing to the room around them. “And that.” He nodded up to the ceiling and the battle above. “All of it. You didn’t think you actually earned your way here, did you?” Kaiden didn’t respond and Werner laughed in amazement. “It didn’t seem suspicious that your landing shuttle specifically made it to the ground in one piece? That the gate opened without even being destroyed? That so little resistance stood in your way once you made it down here?” Werner shook his head, still looking far too pleased with himself.
