Jax, Matty, and Loren hit the wet pavement with a thud as the breath was knocked from their lungs. Still gasping for air Matty rolled to his knees and immediately began scanning his surroundings. Jax was close, still gasping on all fours, Loren was lying on the ground near them on her back, unconscious with vomit on her shirt.
“What the actual fuck?!” Matty gasped. “Where…where are we? What happened?”
Jax had made his way over to Loren and rolled her to her side to ensure she didn’t choke on her vomit. “Why do I get the feeling that things just got a lot more dangerous?”
Matty tried his comms while walking over to check on Loren as well. “Does anyone have a good copy? Comms test, does anyone copy?” There was no response. It seemed long-range comms were down. Add to that the fact that even local comms were down, as Jax didn’t seem to receive a signal either. “We got no comms, it seems like we aren’t near the Bloodhound; otherwise, our comms would still be functional. Things were already severely FUBAR. I don’t know what is going on, but I will bet dollars to donuts that Cap has something to do with it. We need to get Loren off this street and figure out our next move. This isn’t the first time we have ended up in a shitty situation with no intel.”
The two men each threw one of Loren’s arms around their necks and set out to find a safer and less visible location to lay low until they could get an idea of what kind of situation they were in. After a few minutes of walking, they came to the realization that they were in some sort of major city. There were digital billboards everywhere, with the majority being advertising for various consumer goods, but there was plenty of pro-council propaganda mixed in. The last billboard was splashed across the exterior of a skyscraper that seemed impossibly tall. The gist of the video was to urge citizens to report any suspicious individuals to help ensure that the purity of legacy species stayed intact. The last line confirmed a suspicion that was growing in Matty as they walked.
The capital city of Katharos protects those who submit. The Council protects the city of Katharos. All Hail the Council.
“Holy fuck…” Matty stopped and stood staring at the advertisement. “We are in the capital city. Like the home base of the fucking Galactic Council! This is not good, not good at all; we gotta get off the street like fucking now.” Matty pointed at an abandoned building a few hundred yards from where they stood. “That is as good a place as any. Let’s get Loren to safety and see if she improves. I don’t know what happened or how we got here, but if we get seen or run into any sort of police force, I don’t think we come out on top.”
The group approached the abandoned building to see digital placards lining the exterior.
Notice: This structure is scheduled for demolition. Demolition will commence in 62 cycles. For questions or concerns, please contact your local council representative. The council appreciates your loyalty. All hail the Council.
“I’m not sure how long a cycle is, but I don’t think we will have any nosey citizens poking around in here any time soon,” Matty said as he approached the large front doors of the building. The building was dilapidated and ancient-looking. Matty counted five stories, and the building seemed to be made of something very much like red brick that you would find on Earth. There were multiple windows that were now covered with dark grey plastic coverings, and the door was locked with some sort of flexible metal cable. A biometric lock secured the cable, ensuring no unwanted guests entered the building.
“Looks good enough, but I don’t see an entry point. This thing is locked up tighter than a catholic girl’s legs on the first date,” Jax said, pulling the metal cable to test its strength. “We can still use our abilities if you wanna chance drawing any unwanted attention.
Matty and Jax had both selected the Interstellar Assasin as their class. Both men had military backgrounds and were proficient in most weapon types as well as hand-to-hand combat. After the Red Moon of Alcara Matty had managed to reach level 27, while Jax was right behind him at level 25, so both were now proficient with their class and available skills and abilities.
“Let’s make sure we don’t draw any attention if we don’t have to. I can use my Create Explosives ability to deal with that lock. I just need a few minutes to focus since I haven’t really had time to perfect this one yet,” Matty said, holding out the palm of his hand and activating the skill. His palm glowed a pale blue as particles from the atmosphere began to swirl quickly before forming a small black bead of putty. “Should do the trick; I just don’t really have a good grasp on the yield yet, so get Loren to a safe distance,” Matty said as he took a deep breath and placed the explosive bead on the lock, pressing it flat and shaping it to cover the face of the lock. Stepping back to find cover, Matty nodded at Jax to confirm he was about to trigger the explosive. Jax confirmed with a thumbs up. Matty held up three fingers, then two, then one, before clicking the activate explosive command on his interface. Surprisingly, the explosive activated with a barely audible pop before the lock fell away, white smoke that burned the nostrils wafting up into the night air. Matty exhaled audibly before going over to help Jax get Loren into the building.
Once inside, Jax got back to checking Loren to see if she was okay. She was breathing normally, and her heart rate was regular, so he made her comfortable, and the two brothers waited for her to come to. After another 15 minutes, Loren awoke with a moan, slightly panicking at the sight of the unfamiliar surroundings. “Ugh,” Loren rubbed her temples, trying to ease the pain in her head. “Guys, exactly where are we, and how did we get here?”
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Matty walked over to give her some water from his camel back. “Well, we don’t exactly have the whole story, Lo. From what we can tell, we are in the Council’s capital city, it’s called Katharos. We have shit as far as ideas on how we got here, though.”
Loren took a long drink from the tube Matty presented her. “Well, do we have any idea why we were sent here? Any idea what we are supposed to do?”
“We have absolutely no ideas. You were out for about 20 minutes after we all got dumped here. We spent the first few minutes just trying to find a safe spot away from prying eyes. We are gonna need to do some recon and hopefully find some people sympathetic to the human cause. I don’t know if Cap is here, but I am willing to bet he plays into this somehow,” Matty responded, taking the tube to his camel back and taking a long drink for himself. “We are gonna need to conserve water and any supplies we have. We are on an alien world, and I don’t know if there will be any food compatible with our physiology. Remember how the lizards were turning on each other when they ran out of food? I’ll be damned if that is how we go out. Do you have any rations on you?”
Loren searched her pockets and the small tactical fanny pack she carried on the small of her back. “I have 4 of the protein bars Elvis fabricated for us. I don’t have any water, but if there is life here, I am willing to bet there is water. Food should be our main priority.”
Matty nodded in agreement. “Jax and I both have our four protein bars as well. We are going to need to limit ourselves to one bar per day until we find some food. If we haven’t found any in four days, it is a good bet that we won’t find any. We need to prioritize that as we become more familiar with our new surroundings.”
“Guys! I’m coming back into the room. DO NOT PANIC. I am not alone,” Jax shouted from down the hall.
“SHIT!” Matty said as he pulled his sidearm and pressed himself against a large column opposite the entry door. “I told that dumbass to wait until we could all go together, but he just couldn’t wait.” Jax flicked his head toward Loren as shemoved to cover. “You have a weapon?”
“I have a plasma pistol, but my class doesn’t supply any weapons like you and Jax,” she replied.
“Just get that pistol ready; larger weapons aren’t gonna help in these tight quarters.” Matty looked toward the door and took a deep breath before responding to Jax. “You wanna explain what is going on out there, bro?”
“I ran into a group that already had dibs on this building. They were a few floors up. I tried to explain our situation, but I don’t think they believed me. I don’t know much about them, but they are not fans of the Council. Maybe you can convince them we are on the same side?” Jax replied.
Matty shook his head in frustration, feeling cornered and lacking any good options. “You okay, bro?” he asked.
“Yeah, a couple of bruises, but other than that, I’m peachy. Well except for the plasma pistol pressed to my temple. Now would be a good time to come out and talk to our new frie… ugh,” Jax stopped talking as someone hit him.
“You hurt him, and I swear to God that I will make you pay, you bastards!” Matty shouted.
“Come out of the room, and we can discuss things further. If things are as your colleague says, then we have no quarrel. If you fail to comply, none of you will leave this building alive. You have five clicks starting now. 1…2…3…” A male voice began counting down.
Matty stood up, dropping his sidearm and putting both hands in the air. “Okay! Okay! Don’t shoot were coming out.”
Loren followed his lead, coming out from cover with both hands in the air. The unknown group could be heard shuffling closer, but Matty couldn’t see anything due to the bright lights being shined in their eyes. Matty squinted, trying to get a look at his assailants. “We’re coming out, don’t shoot. I am walking toward you; I am unarmed; there is no need to hurt anyone.” Matty had no options and defaulted to trying to de-escalate the situation.
Whap!
The shock of the blow caught Matty off-guard as he fell to his knees, blood pouring from his broken nose. Two figures closed on him and pinned him to the ground before placing restraints on his wrists and ankles, pulling them together behind his back so he was hogtied. He looked over through watery eyes to see them doing the same to Loren.
“Hey, hey, calm down. I told you I would bring you to them. The Facilitator said my brother wouldn’t be harmed if I complied, So can everyone calm the fuck down?” Jax said, walking up to stand above Matty.
“Jax? What the fuck did you do? Brother? What did you do?” Matty pleaded with Jax, trying to understand the situation, trying to believe that he wasn’t just betrayed by his own little brother.
Jax looked down at Matty and shook his head. “Matty, proud loyal Matty.” Jax knelt beside Matty and patted him on the head. “Brother, you may be okay with surviving, living like animals, answering to a prick who doesn’t deserve the power he was given, but I ain’t. Dawes is no captain. He is no leader! He is just some guy who stumbled into a power he can’t possibly hope to wield.” He stood up and walked over to one of the guards who had subdued Matty. “This is power, this is strength. This is the Council in all its glorious might. Dawes is delusional; he is gonna get everyone around him killed. Hell, he already got Claire killed.” Jax looked down solemnly, a look of utter disgust on his face. “Did you know me and her were a thing? Nah, you didn’t know. You had your head so far up Dawes’ ass; how could you?” Jax knelt back beside Matty, “Earth is done, big bro. You are fighting a war you can’t win for a leader that can’t lead. I hedged my bets, is all. You might hate me, but I made a deal. Not long after we made it back to Earth, I started getting messages from some guy called himself the Facilitator. He said if I worked with him to bring down Dawes, he would guarantee safety and citizenship, for me and you,” Jax walked over to Loren who was bound and gagged. “Sorry Lo, it’s not personal but the deal was only for me and Matty,” He knealt down and ran a finger along her cheek. “It really is a pity, you don’t deserve this, blame Dawes if you have to blame anyone. I’m just a guy looking for a way out.” Loren thrashed and screamed through her gag angrily.
Matty stood up and walked toward the exit to the building before turning and addressing one of the guards over his shoulder. “Take ‘em to the holding area. I got an appointment to get some upgrades before my next meeting with good ol Captain Dawes.”