The Sixth Line of Defense

by Shiva Winters

  * * *

  "Doesn't this look like fun girls?" Shiva asked as the transport doors opened up onto a chaotic scene filled with the sparking rain of cutting torches and a hallway tangled with heavy industrial equipment. The people from the maintenance and security teams crammed in together around one of the high security doors into central core of Anslaw. Alex was on his communications device and standing nearby, he looked up and gave her a worried look as if soon after she would be setting off every alarm on the entire base. The twins were both now wide awake and ready for a little bit of adventure. They eagerly giggled in agreement as they picked their way through the tangles of crates and wires that were spread around them.

  "We aren't even close to getting through Shiva." Alex told her moving to block her path.

  "Here's a lesson for you girls, men always think with their.. tools." The bright happy giggles followed as Shiva stepped around the Lt. Colonel and spun the valve fueling the torch. It cut out and the three men making all the noise half froze in confused surprise.

  "Shiva don't do this, every alarm.." Alex begged as Shiva brushed past the men and waved her wrist under the scanner they had been trying to bypass by cutting through the three inch thick tritanium plating. Much to the shock and surprise of everyone the door opened in a rush of quiet sound.

  "My dear Lt. Colonel Alexander, I spent more than ten years in this place almost before you were born." Shiva murmured as stepped into the doorway and turned to address him. "For eight of those years I was feared by every person who worked and lived here, and I spent most of those eight years moving in an out of every laboratory here, did you really think a level 4 security door was going to be that much trouble?"

  "I.." He visibly shook himself before realizing his communicator was still on and clutched in his hand. ".. Okay, honey I am get going now, I'll see you in a little while." He murmured before ending the call much to the delight of the twins as they slipped past her and into the parts beyond. "Tell me how." He half ordered as Shiva let him and his men slip past the barrier that had kept all of them out for however many years they had been there. The Central core was sanctuary of last resort for the 'normals' that had once ruled over Anslaw, if her family had ever mounted an insurrection, the scientists, security forces, and the administrators would have all retreated into the Central core where massive steel reinforced concrete walls and hardened security doors covered by automated weaponry would hopefully keep the 'freaks' at bay long enough for the outer reaches of the base to be flooded with poisonous gases and neural toxins. All the full humans who ran things were deemed with a 'level 4' security clearance or higher to allow them access to the sanctuary where none of the children were ever 'technically' supposed to go.

  "I thought I explained that already." Shiva murmured as they entered the large airlock room and the first door shut behind them. She smiled evilly at the snickering twins as again the scanner read her hidden bar code allowed them to pass into the darker corridors on the far side.

  "Try again." Alex growled back to her. The Central core contained the Administration offices, the main security stations, the vaults, the main computer banks, the main power station, and the most of the life support systems. It also had the only access point outside of the hangers that connected to the surface, through small command hanger bay that could be used during an emergency evacuation so it was pretty much the heart of Anslaw.

  "I was always scary and 'to be avoided at all costs'. And back then you needed a Level 2 clearance to get into most of the low level laboratories where we worked when we were no longer the subject of ongoing research." Shiva murmured as she lead the way through the dusty shadows opening doors along the path that slowly began to rise in the levels of clearance one needed to get past them. "As long as you were old enough everyone of us had Level 1 clearance, you needed that much just to get around. But to do any research, or get anywhere important you either needed to be 'trusted' or you needed to be 'escorted'. I certainly wasn't trusted but no one wanted to escort me so.. they gave me a Level 2 clearance anyway, so I could get around on my own. But since I was scary no one really wanted to test me, or set me off on the killing spree they all feared, so even if I wandered into a Level 3 lab to get something they just pretended not to notice until one day they simply forgot I was there. So it came to pass that eventually I was merely a shadow and since nothing ever blew up and no one died they started ignoring me completely. It just so happens that one of the department heads forgot to log out of his computer when he and his team went off to lunch."

  "You hacked your own clearance code." One of the security people murmured.

  "Yep, highest I could go without the approval of Dr. Powell or the General was Level 7.. they simply never thought to review their files."

  "You could have gotten out, mother." Athena commented to her.

  "You needed level 8 to authorize the launch of a shuttle, same with the air locks.. access to the Central core was one of the few places constantly monitored so.. I was usually escorted through here, but.." Shiva shrugged off the rest.

  "You need level 9 access to get into the vault." Alex murmured to her warningly.

  "Command staff only, I know. But Level 7 gets your right up to the outer doors, and that's where the fun begins." Shiva agreed smiling back over to him.

  "You could have told me and saved us some work." Alex growled even as he yawned.

  "You could have told me you planned to cut your way into the central core." Shiva countered in return as they reached the outer chamber of the safe and were confronted with the sight of the 20 ton steel door.

  "I suppose you are right." Alex agreed reluctantly at her backwards look.

  "You should just stand right about there and watch.. this isn't going to be pretty." A massive section of the ceiling over their heads caved in the next second raining down debris as cables and conduits were breached, the com-pad in Alex's pocket started ringing in the next moment.

  "The central vault is offline?" Alex murmured stepping forward to peer up up the massive bundle of cables that had been snapped in half and now dangling into the room. "Don't worry about it for now, just make sure alarms don't wake anyone up."

  "Wouldn't do anyone any good to get woken up in the middle of the night would it girls." Shiva chuckled as the three of them climbed over the broken panels and debris now covering the floor. Their giggles were enough to make all the men smile, Shiva had already taken the time to explain to them what would need to be done and when they would need to do it on the transport ride over there, so without another word the three of them got started. Shiva closed her eyes and focused all her strength on the door blocking the space in front of them and the massive bulk heaved towards her with a squeal of protesting metal. As the immense eight foot thick door shuddered and strained against the locking bars, Isis and Athena went to work as the smell of overheated metal filled the air as a burning red hot glow began to move up around the razor thin seam between the door and the wall. Using their gifts to super heat the molecules inside those foot thick titanium bars, the intense pressure of having the door straining against the objects holding them in place combined into a force they were never meant to withstand. When the first thick metal bars gave out under forces being applied to them there came a tremendous sound that made the whole room shake as the door jerked forward and tilted only adding to sheering effects on the remaining bolts. It crackled like thunder three or four more times, speeding up as the twins were able to refocus their efforts until with one last shattering crunch the entire 20 ton mass lunged forward with surprising speed to stop inches away from the fingers of Shiva's outstretched hand.

  "Maybe we should have knocked first." She murmured before simply tossing huge object to one side to collide with the side wall of the chamber with a force the shook everything around them.

  "Yellow alert!" Flashing yellow lights flicked on in that first chamber and in the one beyond
it as the vaults internal security rippled into life. Isis and Athena ignored it as the began to rip up floor panels, yank things off the walls and break up the few sparse pieces of furniture arming themselves with mounds of debris. When they were ready they nodded across the distance from either side of the opening and Shiva took a few deep calming breaths before she threw herself into a run across the border of the door and straight into the line of fire of the high energy automated plasma guns that filled the next room. Dodging and weaving across the space with the full extent of her speed the girls started lobbing an array of junk from safety destroying the weapons attacking Shiva from all sides. The last gun was taken out almost a second before Shiva reached the next thick steel plate door on the far side and slammed into it with the full strength of her gift cracking the metal and buckling the thickly reinforced barrier. The next chamber was kept in a vacuum when sealed, so when that seal was violated all the air and debris behind her came rushing towards it. Shiva's barrier deflected all of it away as she waited for the pressure to equalize before the remains of the shattered door were crushed like a beer can and lobbed across the dark room beyond to cause an intense burning white light that lasted a heartbeat as Shiva rushed inside and caught the tremendous hundred ton door as it was fired down from above by high speed engines suppose to slam it shut before she could get any further.

  Shiva only just caught it as it nearly touched her hands as she held her arms above her head. The girls both came rushing in adding their their own strength and together they managed to overcome the magnetic forces trying to crush them and fried the electric motors that powered them. Athena stayed at her side as Isis darted back to the first door to rip four of the locking bars out of the wall as Shiva and her sister inched the sheer tonnage upward little by little. When she returned they had just managed to rise it high enough to get the bars under it and take the weight. Athena was exhausted and Isis had grown pale by that point as the strain started to show. There was only one barrier left before the final vault door. The internal alarms had already gone from yellow, through orange, and into red as shrill electronic screeching deafened them in the hollow metal sided space.

  "Shiva.." Alex murmured as he and his men moved forward.

  "I know." She agreed not needing his warning as she ordered the girls to get back with a glance. A random piece of debris sucked through the broken door was lobbed into the room beyond giving her an exact location as burning white light snapped across the space to make the debris disappear with a puff of black smoke and a foul odor. One half of Shiva's right hand tether snapped open in her sleeve and dropped down into her waiting fingers. The metal arms folded around backs of her fingers like a massive jeweled brass-knuckle as she stepped slowly forward and began to focus all her remaining strength onto the jewel. It was a subtle glow at first by as she approached the unseen force-field bristling silently with 10 million amps, that glow became a burning light. Just before the metallic jeweled would explode, Shiva crossed the remaining distance in three steps to throw all of that gathered force into the electrical field. Man-made lightning crackled blindingly into the black space as great burning arcs of electricity poured down towards the impact site and slowly expanding hole that was forming through it. The air stank of ozone as the charge continued to ripple down from the generators unabated as billions of volts bristled across the air. Powering her strength into the jewel Shiva's vision wavered and her mind lost focus as everything was thrown into that one singled minded goal. Shiva had almost created a hole large enough to go diving through when there were three intense pops followed by an intense explosive force before a total darkness and an end of the screeching sounds of alarm.

  Emergency lights were the first things to return as all of them tried to recover their overwhelmed senses, as the air burned with acrid smell of burning wiring that tasted foul against the backs of their throats. Thick black smoke was pouring out of force field generators overloaded by the strain to vaporize the telekinetic intrusion. In the distance there was a slim sliver off bright light flowing into the chamber from the spaces beyond coming through the nearly caved in steel wall at the far end of the room. The tremendous forces used to force that hole through the force field had unleashed a devastating effects against the far wall. Not quite able to summon up the strength in that moment to get back up to her feet Shiva looked at that light and knew they had gotten through. Beyond that crumpled metal door was the main room to the vault and the access door to the main terminal where one could re-write the entire security protocol meant to keep people out of that critical space. Alex was the one who helped her to her feet and Isis was the one who ripped the remaining fight out of the second to last door.

  "I honestly never thought we would get to see this room." Alex commented as he look around the massive circular space filled with large and small locked boxes set into the smooth walls.

  "We're almost done." Shiva murmured as she threw her tether across the space where the arms pierced the front of one of the large lock-boxes. With one sharp motion the entire thing was ripped from the wall and flew towards them to strike the floor and slid to a halt at her feet. "They never let me keep any of my good toys." Shiva half growled, half teased as the coded lock proved to be the most minor of barriers as the lid popped open. Her tether returned to its' proper place at a thought and she pulled her sleeve back over its' two sided form.

  "Do I even want to ask?" He murmured as Shiva shifted away from his side to lift the top layer of gray foam away.

  "It'll all be in my research files. I am too tired to explain right now." She told him as she tossed the foam away and stretched her back out before holding out her hands. The two long objects that snapped up into her hands might have looked more at home in a jewelry case than in a weapons storage locker, but even the blood red clarity of a ruby like creation couldn't take away from the sheer lethal beauty of them. Long thin curved blades nearly three feet long each, they looked like Japanese samurai blades even down to the simply black leather of the hilts. The blades like the gems of the tethers where far more than they appeared to be and the handles were far more than they showed on the surface.

  "Ooo!" The girls announced just as attracted to lethal purity as Shiva was herself.

  "Excuse me gentlemen." Shiva called across to the room to the Alex's men who were trying to figure out how to get past the final door. The saw her armed and quickly got out of the way, Shiva launched one blade away in a sharp under hand toss, just before it struck it burned for an instant with firey red light before sheathing it's full length into the center of the door severing the pin that would permanently lock the door if triggered. Her approach was slow and unhurried drawing her closer before she launched the second blade, it struck less than a millimeter from the side of the dial lock. With a gesture of swirling finger that was mostly just for show the blade spun around the lock and when blades snapped out of door the lock popped out with them to bounce across the floor. Holding the blades in one hand Shiva pulled back the bars that were now useless and pulled open the door with her free hand to enter the small space filled with huge screens, keyboards, and computer controls. With a sigh, Shiva set aside her blades and quickly figured which controls they would want immediately.

  "What are you doing?" Alex asked moving to rub her back.

  "Deleting all the old security clearances and.." She grabbed his hand and planted it on a flat panel scanning device, it beeped softly. "Putting you charge of Anslaw." He gave her a surprised look. "You can't be a trained as a spy if you don't know computers.." Shiva murmured as she gave herself Level 9 access just for the fun of it. "You've got someone who knows computers?" He nodded to her soundlessly. "Good, you and I can get back into this room, as long as you make sure no one you have doubts about doesn't get clearance about Level 7, the vault should be secure until you can fix some things.. or change around the protocols."

  "Thank you." Shiva smiled at him, kissed his cheek befor
e taking her blades and her box and moving to return the three of them back to bed.