Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 153 of 365. Sol standard year]
Days after of Crash landing/ 2
Uninhabited Island / Ruins / Scholar’s Rest/ Floor Two
Galactic Standard Time / 0928
“Well, three against those two hu? Now, that looks a bit unfair to me,” Rodolphe said as he looked down the corridor, feeling a smirk on his face. Coming down the stairs he hadn’t expected to find what he had. But the site of a group of young women there looking at a door with worry was enough for him to know. Something was wrong, and as Krisila was looking at the door he knew right then what it was. Without a word, he had walked by her and nodded once, and she had fallen into step behind him. Leaving the armored forms of Glartics and Deogics behind to watch over the women, he had closed the door.
Then turning his head he saw one of the Beast Cultists looking at him. Before it could cry out, he had killed him with a single shot of his pistol. After he walked around the corner, he was shocked at what he found. He was expecting to see the corpses of the two so-called ‘Priestess’, but instead he was surprised. They had dealt with two more of the same type of Cultists and done it quickly. He half expected for them to be dead and being eaten by twenty of them, but not this.
But seeing the three large bulky figures rushing down the corridor, he could only smirk a bit.
“I hate unfair fights,” Krisila said as Rodolphe walked next to her. This was the floor that was beneath the one he went to, and he
“I love them, but only when my side is unfair,” Rodolphe said with a grin.
Without a word, the two of them ran towards the Priestess, Rodolphe aiming at the bulky figures. Only after they had run twenty feet did something happen. Right as Rodolphe finished aiming at the Cultists, they heard the sound of pounding feet. A moment later he fired, a loud echoing roar echoed off the walls as the shot flew down the hallway. Pouring around the corner came over twenty more of the bulky figures, with fliers above them.
Rodolphe stopped and looked at the oncoming horde. He saw the two Priestess turn and start to run, and the three nearest bulky figures almost on them. “Heads down you two!”
As soon as they heard him, the two Priestess ran with their heads down, and Rodolphe fired six quick shots. Three of them went around the three chargers, heading towards the horde in the distance. But the other three hit the chargers in their throats and they slipped and fell.
“Move it, girl!” Rodolphe barked as he turned, running back the way he had come. As soon as he reached the corner he spun around, aiming down the corridor. As Krisila ran towards him, he smirked and pointed to the open door to the staircase. “Go on, I’ll be right there with those two! Close the door and lock it if they get by me!”
Krisila only nodded, running past him.
Turning back, he saw that the Priestess were almost there, and the horde had run into the downed Bulky ones. Rodolphe grinned as he realized that the Priestesses had run along the sides of the corridor. Without a moment’s hesitation, he aimed and fired at the horde, only for a moment.
As the bolts he fired hit the Bulky ones in their heads, they died drawing cries from those behind them. With a smirk, he turned and ran, the Priestesses right behind him. As he saw Krisila looking at him from the doorway, he smirked at her.
Coming into the staircase, he saw the others were moving down and grinned. Turning around, he was met with the head of a staff an inch from his nose.
“Hold!” One of the Priestess growled as she looked at the people going down. “Who are you, and where are you taking us!?”
“Priestess, no! He’s a friend!” Krisila cried as she tried to stop her but the other Priestess stopped her from moving.
Rodolphe only looked at the woman, feeling something strange as he looked at her. For some reason, she was making him think about the few times he had been interrogated. That detective from the INTERSYM, the Federation’s Inter-Stellar police. The way she always seemed to think he was behind everything wrong on the station. For a second he almost thought about lying like with the detective. But then he smiled as he realized he had nothing to lie about.
“Rodolphe, currently a deckhand on the Space Cruise Liner Spirit of Adventure. We crashed here a few days ago,” Rodolphe said with a hard look in his eyes.
As both Priestess looked at him in shock, they heard the sounds of something thundering past the door.
With a single gesture, Rodolphe pointed down and moved to lead the way down the stairs.
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Ambritia looked at the head of Rodolphe, trying to wrap her head around his answer. She had to admit, that she was one of those who was starting to see the ‘truth’ of the new cult. That they had always been here. That their ancestors had evolved from creatures here, in the Forest, that the Ship was a lie. But this man, declared himself to have come from another world.
She looked at the back of the other Priestess’s head and wondered what she was thinking. She and Ambritia had long talks about the past, and she had to admit that her new beliefs came from the Priestess. But as she looked at the woman before her, a person who was always so sure of herself, she seemed lost. But that was impossible, she was always so collected! It wasn’t like the fact that someone was saying she was wrong broke her! It was almost as if…….
Ambritia went still as suddenly so many things made sense. Little things that on their own seemed like nothing suddenly took on a darker tone. If she was right, then this woman was the worst of all Traitors! Why hadn’t Ambritia had her people look into the other Priestess?! It would have taken only days for them to get back to her and she would have known everything about this wrench!
She moved towards Krisila and looked at her, before speaking softly. “Where did you run into that man?”
Krisila looked at her, and Ambritia saw a spark of anger in her eyes.
“Well, after our friend's invention blew up, he was sent to meditate below. Some of us saw someone we didn’t trust going down one of these passages. We came down, ran into Cultists, and then found Rodolphe and the other two. And the General was there. And they all came out of the Devil’s Realm,” Krisila said with a blank look on her face.
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Ambritia looked at Krisila, trying to figure out what about that made her more worried. If one of the Generals was here, then she might be in trouble. One of them she had trained with before she, ‘dropped out’. The other was her brother, but he should be at the Front Line. Only one of them hadn’t met her before she left, and she couldn’t count on Rogix being here.
“Oh my! And where is the General now?” Ambritia asked as she and Krisila passed a door. So far they had only seen that door, so they had to have gone down a level. They were one floor above the ground level, and that meant that they were near the most combat. But where had all those Cultists behind them come from?
“General Rogix is below us. We’re going to be using the Realms to escape,” Krisila said with a smirk.
Ambritia looked at her in shock. It was all she could do to keep moving, the words reverberating in her mind. The very idea is to use the Devil’s Realm as a way to evacuate. It went against everything that Ambritia knew as a fact of life here. The Realms couldn’t be breached, no matter what anyone did. But there was a way into them down there?
“How?” She croaked out and Krisila just laughed a little.
“Three-step plan. One party left to contact anyone back at the General’s camp. We leave from a viewer there, and then they crush the Cult here,” Krisila said with a smirk.
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As she looked around, she to not let her feelings show. The plan had been in the works for a year, and they hadn’t known about this place!? It had only been luck that she had found the right place to hide, and now there was all this!? The plan was to make as loud a noise as possible, and then try and find out who had killed that fool. Instead, she was looking at something that would destroy the plan! And she was under watch by people who had fought off her fellows! She had to find a way to escape, but she was in a mass of bodies. And with the way her luck was going, some of them would battle awaken if she caused a scene!
As they moved along the short corridor, she kept looking around for the door. Once they opened it she would force herself out, transform, and call for help. Once they were all here and some of the Strong ones broke through, she would kill the off-worlder herself.
“Nescalia, are you okay?”
The voice of Priscixlia from behind her caused her to look up. Priscixlia was standing next to her.
Nescalia forced a smile before she spoke softly. “I’m just so worried dear Priscixlia. I was here to be a healer, not go into combat! How could those monsters have even broken in?”
As Priscixlia looked away, Nescalia grinned. She had been trained in mind warfare and knew how to spot pressure points. And seeing how Priscixlia reacted back at the Chapel, Nescalia knew what to say. She had to keep her off balance, she needed to keep calm.
“I have no idea. I mean I’ve brought food to the guards. The plan to defend this place is beyond cutting edge. It would take some tech from the Ship to still be active to break through!” Priscixlia said with a wistful tone in her voice.
Nescalia almost spoke up that the off-worlder might have it. But then remembered that thanks to the ritual, she had better hearing than her ‘friend’. So only she knew that the person coming up behind them was from off-world. And that was something that she could use. Everything was something that she could use. All for the Great Beast, it was what she was born for after all.
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As he walked through the thirty or so people they had saved, Rodolphe scowled. This was a lot messier than any of his old raids. And then they were always against military targets, not a school! But then the fact that a base for the other side was below this place, changed a few things. He had to hope that Bryce and the others could handle it, he had other priorities and lives to save.
“But where did….. not important. Are you sure you can get us away from here?” The Priestess who had threatened him asked.
Rodolphe nodded before sighing. “We just need to move. We’re looking for everyone that we can get away. This is bad, very bad. These people infiltrated this place like pros. This is something they didn’t plan for, but we can’t count on it. I know what happens when people do that.”
“So no land of star-shine and plenty?” The Priestess asked with a sigh. “I thought so. You’re too good at this for that.”
Rodolphe felt his insides twist a little. Should he talk about how he wasn’t a normal deckhand? And that his skills were from before he joined the ship? That would open a can of worms that he didn’t want to, and they might tell the chief when these people made contact. He didn’t trust the old man, he had been around a lot. And if he knew the truth about Rodolphe, then the old man would have a lot of questions. Questions that might get Rodolphe in a lot of trouble. And worse, it might get back to its target!
“My skills aren’t due to training on the ship. Long story. One I don’t think we should talk about now. We have to move,” Rodolphe said softly but firmly.
He could hear talks between the people he had rescued, most of them wondering what he meant. And given what he had learned about the beliefs of these people, that was a problem. The best thing was to keep his origins quiet to the common person. He only told this Priestess because they were alone, and he spoke soft enough that only they would hear. The first rule of dealing with people who had gone native is don’t break them.
He had to break where he was from carefully, but with the attack…….. he had to get these people to safety first.
As he passed a door they all heard the sounds of screams. To the others, it sounded like everything they had heard before, but to Rodolphe it was different. For a moment he thought he was back home on his world. It sounded like a predator pack was celebrating something. All he knew was that he had to get these people to safety fast.
“Move faster!” Rodolphe barked as he struggled against the tide. If he had to lead from the front, then so be it. Ahead he saw the large room within these passages, so they were safe. With luck, the others should be here and then they could plan how to get them all away.
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As the Priestess moved after Rodolphe, she tried to keep calm. Her faith in the Way of the New had been shaken, and that was a bad thing. She had promised herself to keep her personal feelings away from her job. She was only here to help and guide the students with problems as they came to her. But to have come across a man with a strange device that said he was from another world, it made sense. But that flew against everything that she believed in. How had everything that made so much sense was suddenly so wrong!? But as she looked up, she saw someone moving around and her breath caught in her throat for a moment.
“Professor Galatrics?” She stammered as she realized who she was looking at.
Galatrics looked up and smiled at her as the students behind her all let out small words of hope. The Professor was seen around the school as the teacher who was on their side the most. He always wanted to hear all sides of all arguments. That gave him a reputation for always trying to give a punishment that was needed, never more.
“Priestess, good to see you! I see my student was able to save you with Sir Rodolphe’s help!” He said with a smile as he looked around. Seeing Rodolphe he nodded. “Good, you’re here. Embix and Zaglix went to go and check the route. Everyone we sent out is almost back, we’re only waiting for Parcis and his friends.”
The Priestess blinked as she heard the name of her backer’s son. “He’s involved in this!?”
“Yeah, he saw something and thought someone was going to hurt Embix. They went to stop them from what I understand. I always knew there was something more in him!” Galatrics said with pride in his voice.
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As Parcis looked around the corner, he tried to keep calm. They had made it to a room that used the special one-way glass in its windows. After getting everyone they could to the servant’s corridor, they almost left. But Parcis felt the need to slip into this room to see what was happening outside in the yard.
“I….. Is that who I think it is boss?” Cursix said in a near whisper.
Parcis only nodded, completely in agreement with his minion. This was something that you never expected to see, like the three offworlders! One impossible thing was to be expected, but this? Looking down at who was walking into the courtyard, Parcis felt faint.
“I’m hoping it’s not! But who else could it be?!” Xacris breathed out, surprise in his voice.
“It is, that cloak is pretty unique, it’s one of them,” Parcis croaked out as he looked through the window. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, it was impossible! What could have happened to cause this? Those people were supposed to be protected, this was against all reason!
“What do we do? I mean what can we do!?” Cursix asked as they looked down at the procession entering that building.
Xacris only shook his head as he backed away. “Nothing! We saw nothing and we take that to our grave! There’s no way they’re ever be able to prove we saw that! And we can’t even use it to our advantage! That’s the worst!”
While Parcis only shook his head and sighed. He knew the kind of person that he was hiring and his history. If Xacris had reacted differently, then he would have been worried. If the way his family chose people was wrong, then everything they had done would have been in doubt. The very idea that the old belief of the Capture was right, then that was bad enough.
“Are you insane?! Don’t you have any loyalty at all beyond your coin!?” Cursix growled and Xacris only looked at him before scowling.
“Like your one to talk!” Xacris barked.
Parcis ignored the drama behind him as he tried to keep calm and think. There was only one reason that they would go into that building, and that reason was very bad for them. “Forget about using this, think! What is that building used for, the only thing it’s used for!”
At this, the other two pulled their arms away from the others and looked at the building. In a few moments, both of them slowly nodded. Then they paled as Parcis turned around and walked towards the door.
“Since you’ve finally figured out what I saw in an instant, move! We have to get back to the others and tell them what we found. This means that we can’t go down there!” Parcis said with a scowl on his face.
“Yeah, too bad. I mean…. Boss! Get over here!” Cursix barked in fear.
Without a word, Parcis turned around. But when he saw Xacris fall backwards, a look of shocked horror on his face, he knew something had happened. With a heavy feeling in his chest, he walked over to the window and paled at what he saw.
“We gotta tell the others, now!” Parcis breathed out in horror.