The rocky squarish room fills with dust that rains from the roof as loud booms sound out above them, a low-pitched alarm rouses them to their stations while a holographic display above the center console appears with an above ground view as red warning lights turn on.
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
Beam attacks and other magic effects slam into the dome shield surrounding the small house above them, a cover for the bunker hidden below.
A man presses a number of glowing crystal buttons frantically, the power levels on the screens show fluctuations while the shield is battered. He is about 6ft 3, fair skinned from being underground too long and dark haired. And an almost exact duplicate to the other four people in this room.
They are all wearing the same clothes, a dark blue uniform with golden buttons and accents at the edges with the image of Earth on the right sleeve. With only slight differences in facial hair and uniform to tell them apart.
Warnings flash across the screens showing the mana/fusion generator power levels climbing while auto defences lance out crashing into shields and other blockades, beams of mana burning across the air.
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
“Number 1, we can’t hold on like this for much longer.” Said one of the clones, Number 2.
“Boss, we’re getting reports in over comms, all the safehouses are under attack. Word from HQ is that the Round Robin Teleport contingency has been activated. Teleportation of HQs facilities to SHQ to begin in three E-Minutes! Code 0, Repeat: Code 0!” Said Number 3.
A deep, resonant "KRRR-ACK!" that echoes through the air as cracks appear in the roof, walls and floor.
“Two, shore up that shield and prepare for Round Robin. How long can we last?” Says Number 1.
This is the worst case scenario, they have found the main base. Underneath the control room is a massive teleportation array that will teleport each of the rooms in HQ to the SHQ via each safehouse in a seemingly random pattern before being teleported to SHQ.
A security measure that was confirmed to work in our testing against the Institute Powered Array, it should be completely decipherable and give us a chance to rebuild.
“I have to turn off the weapons, shield and Round Robin should last till the end.” Replied Number 2.
“Boost the generator's output, I don’t care if it explodes in five minutes if we’re out of here in three.”
“Got it.”
The others in the room are frantically pressing buttons and manipulating details on the screens, manually updating shield strength and structural integrity while also charging the Round Robin, a soft blue glow appears from a small crack in the floor, the Round Robin’s teleport pad is charging. Illuminating the room while the lights dim from the energy drain.
The “Escape pods” that line the walls should keep them alive and the energy drain won't affect them with their in-built batteries but…
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
“Five, this should not be happening. How did the Institute find us, this was supposed to be secret!” Said Number 1.
Number Five looks like he is having a panic attack. “I, I… I don’t know. We, our safe houses should only be known to us, there’s no way. We just have to hope that our escape houses are not discovered either.”
“Gahh, comms down. They're jamming us with magic interference.” Says Number 3. “Last Comms was that all active safe-houses were compromised, no word about the escape houses but it is suspected that they are safe.”
Number 5 appears to sober up a little, “They should be, only one Clone and Kage pair made those Land-Wide. It’s not possible that those got found. Not yet anyway.
“Round Robin in T minus 30 E-seconds, teleport platform engaged!” Yells Number 2, he’s kick started the process till then they just need to
“Number 1! They know something is happening! They are increasing their fire power, and are directed towards us!”
Number 5 yells as more explosions are heard, a massive explosion rings out above as more cracks appear, a section of roof and wall collapses, rock and dust falling to the floor. The room becomes filled with a blue light as the red lights wink out.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Dammit!” yells Number 4, “They got an attack through the shields, significant damage to the house and the beams are digging into the underground. That shielding won’t hold it!”
“Increase shield strength! Give me everything, plug the batteries in from the escape pods!”
“We’re not getting out of here lads. Zero can bring us back at SHQ.”
The room is silent for a moment aside from the explosions, the cracks in the rock and alarms.
“Understood, diverting power.” Replies Number 4, as he presses some buttons and then jogs over to the escape pods, pulling cords from the base of the pods and connecting them to ports on the base of the control console.
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
“Shields at full strength, we might last just longer than 5 minutes.”
“Self Destruct Number 5?”.
“Set, it will go off the moment after Round Robin boss. It will fill this entire safe-house and all levels with concrete, an explosion will destroy the array before that happens.”
“Got it. 2, your progress?”.
“Going good, Round Robin in progress. Eta 4 minutes till complete.”
“Prepare for self destruct gentleman.”Says Number 1 soberly as he presses some crystals on the console and pulls up both the outside camera and teleport array on the hologram.
These guys are relentless, if they had any more we’d be in big trouble.
The Round Robin is active, the soft whump whump of air displacement sounds as rooms appear and disappear within seconds of each other in the room below, the rooms of the HQ transformed into mana and sent to all these forwarding stations all over the world.
Moving from one station to the next, crossing borders and mountains to reach the next station before arriving at the SHQ, not even all the clones know that end location, just four do.
Seconds turn to minutes as room after room whumps in and out of the array, the largest rooms are in parts large enough to be transported. Cracks deepen, parts of the rock start to burn from the heat traveling through the rock, discolouring them, most hot to the touch and the temperature slowly increasing to an uncomfortable level.
Damn, it’s getting hot in here.
Alert! Atmospheric temperature exceeding 50 degrees C. Attempting to Suppress. Recommend moving to a cooler location.
- - -
Alert! Unable to suppress high temperatures, you will incur damage. 54 degrees C and climbing.
Ok, damn, gotten hot in here.
Number 5 breaks the sweaty silence pulling at his collar, “Round Robin about to complete, estimated 1 minute left.”
“Good to know. 5, how long would we have?”
“Seconds, when the base starts filling with concrete, we’ll have about 20 seconds before the whole base is solid again. During that time the explosives will take out the array and any equipment we have.”
“And us” is left unsaid.
“Thank God we have no Kage on our team, they would never get out of here.” Adds Number 3.
Those last seconds feel like an eternity, you cannot properly appreciate that feeling unless you’ve experienced it yourself. It’s almost like you can see each grain of dust falling from the roof, each detail of the room and the other clones.
I still feel weird when looking at my own eyes. muses Number 1.
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
“CRACK!”
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
"KRRR-ACK!"
“Number 3, are we able to transmit a message to the enemy above us?” Asks Number 1.
“Um, yea, we should be able to just fine. Why?” he replies as he lifts his head from his hands.
“Just do it, put it through to my console.”.
“Number 1, what are you doing?” asks Five.
“Sending them a message.” Pressing a crystal on the console which acts as a microphone, a console that will soon detonate.
“20 seconds boss” says Number 2 quietly.
I hear a click, like a radio ready to transmit.
“Here goes”
“Army of the Institute, I am Number Five Five One of this base. Your attack on this base and our other bases just proves everything we were saying about the poison that is the Institute Leaders!”
“In less than 15 seconds this base will self destruct, you will never find us again, but we will rise. Justice, Will, Prevail!”
“Ten Seconds!” yells Number 2, unheard by the Institute Army.
“Rise! Rise OutWorlders of Land! The Battle is Lost but The War will be WON!” Yelling into the crystal before throwing it, shattering it on the console . The attack and the explosions have stopped, the cracking of rocks becomes a quieter creaking.
A counter for the last five seconds is showing on the hologram screen, about to start.
“What do you think?” I ask them.
“4 out of 10, not your best” replies Number 3 with a smile and a chuckle from the others.
“Always good to have humour in these situations.”
We are silent, truly silent. We will return to life, of that there is no worry, but we might not, will not, be fully ourselves.
This life, how did it come to this? We were just a simple guy only a few years ago and an even more simpler guy years before those.
The counter ticks down, the last moments of Security Team Echo being held deep underground.
Number 555, Security and espionage officer.
Number 554, Tactical Officer.
Number 553, Comms Officer.
Number 552, Engineer.
And Number 551, leader of this tiny cog of a grand machine, an alliance of so many but so few.
The counter ticks down, the last moments of Security Team Echo being held deep underground.
5.
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
4.
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
3.
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
2.
WEEEAAAAHHHHHHH
1.
WEEEAAA-BOOM!
The explosion deep in our console and equipment destroys our base, the recreated high explosive that the RnD Team was working on works well. The explosion throws us against the walls and takes us, concrete starts pouring in from vents in the roof and floor.
We poof back into the smoke that makes up our being, I think back, back to how all this mess started…
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Outworlders, a boon or cataclysm. To say an Outworlder is good or bad is sometimes left up to history but other times it is apparent. From Outworlders that start their own cults and wars to those who provide techniques for bettering the world, there is a wide range between personality, technology and species.
It is theorised that a new Outworlder appears yearly, but they are divided between each domain seemingly randomly. It is unknown even to the gods why Outworlders appear.
- A brief history of OutWorlders as told by the Domain of Land.
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