He looked around at his Clan. It was a mess. Most of the surviving wounded was from the final stretch of the Run. Most that were wounded while holding the line were killed before they could be pulled out and replaced.
“… Leanne.”
“Yes Clan Head?”
“Damage and Status.”
“Everyone has taken at least some damage, it varies. Some of the walking wounded are barely walking. We have 40 Shield Warriors still able to fight, 15 Lancers and a handful of Marksmen-”
“Handful? How imprecise of you Sentinel.”
“There are 5 ready to fight; the Monitors are in surgery with 3 others. They predict two of them should shortly be in stable, fighting condition.”
Should. She hated that word. There were a lot of things that ‘should be’ but somehow never happened that way. This was a disaster. Pessimism wasn’t part of her Role. She continued.
“Sentries are down to 10; your Personal Guard, there are 4 left.”
“The Youth?”
“Survivors have been rolled into the Shield Warriors.”
“Monitors?”
“I believe we’ve lost one, the Head Monitor refuses to be classified alongside the rest of the troops so I didn’t include their number into the totals.” The Head Monitor and her shared a similar level of authority and the same rank, if in different positions.
“How many Sentinel?” If the Clan Head was asking again she knew to give a straight answer.
“They total 19.”
“I will deal with him. What of weapons?”
“We have excess of standard weaponry. Redistribution and reformation of squads is already underway.”
“and…?”
He meant heavy weapons, “2 Electro-Thermic missiles, we still possess both Force Shields, plenty of conventionals, one gravity mine-” The Clan Head raised his eyebrow at this.
“The Monitor who was carrying most of the gravitronic weapons was himself, crushed by a gravity mine.”
The Clan Head couldn’t help but chuckle at that. Figures, he would deal with this now.
The Clan Head moved towards Head Monitor Georgi.
“Georgi.”
“Clan Head,” the Head Monitor inclined his head a touch shallow for a proper greeting. Nothing that could be directly called out.
“I would love to know how your Monitors have managed to keep your losses so low.” His voice sounded casual but considering the surroundings they were in, it was anything but relaxed.
“We have Skill and Mods to detect traps,” The Head Monitors eyes slipped at the accidental admission, “we were also responsible for transporting the wounded.”
Head Lee looked around, he studied the wounded. There were less than 10 wounded. There were 19 Monitors.
“Head Monitor, let me be clear. Your Monitors are under my direct command as of this moment.”
His eyes bulged out at this, “Unacceptable Clan Head! Completely unacceptable! You lack the qualific-”
The Clan Head loosened a dagger that was concealed in the folds of his robes and buried it in the man’s throat.
“My qualifications?” Lee hissed as he caught the Monitor’s wrist, stopping a potential retribution. “You are unqualified to enter the New Age with the rest of this Clan.”
He ripped his blade out the side of his neck, sending a splatter of gore out in a spray. If you kill someone, you make sure of it.
“Who is the new Head Monitor.” It was a question but not asked like one. Wide eyes stared in response.
“It’s a New Age, and those that will adapt will be rewarded, you have all just seen the price for failing to adapt. This is a promotion. Now, someone step forward.”
The Monitors that weren’t surgically involved stared between Clan Head Lee and themselves. Someone was pressured and pushed forward.
“You! Good choice. May your command be long.”
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Jack moved away to give Kala space as she "held open" Uller so Eilien could keep cycling Nano into him.
“How much longer is this gonna take?” Kala’s previously impassive face had lost most of its good humor.
“I… Probably a long time.”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Electricity is building on the other side.” Jack had his hand on the Door, eyes closed. “I’m going to open the Door.”
Kala chimed in, “If you can open the Door than what the fuck was Uller doing?”
“Being greedy,” Jonah offered.
“Being an idiot,” Yuma added.
“Probably both,” Jack found a disk slot on the side of the Terminal and popped in the AI.
After a brief pause, Jack placed his hand on the HandPad. He didn’t notice everyone tense up.
Mikey asked loudly, “What do you guys think will be in there? I mean it almost has to be a giant crab.”
“That’s dumb Mikey, there’s no way that there’s a giant crab in there. If there were bigger crabs we would have seen something.”
“Agreed, there’s no way there are enough resources in the Labs to support a giant crab.”
Another hopped in, “Where do you think we are? This is the Core. Of course it has the resources. It’s definitely possible but I think the SI is out of tricks.”
A few groaned at that statement and conversation died as clunks and audible mechanisms started up inside the Door. Four large circular bolts, arrayed in a square across the face cycled and rotated counterclockwise.
Jack pocketed the AI disk and walked over to middle of the Door. Kala yelled, “Thanks for making sure we were ready!” Jack flashed her his only finger on his right hand and she laughed.
Jack looked back again, “You’re really going to bring him in there?”
“Shit.” That seemed like Kala’s standard reply at this point.
“Eil, can you stay outside with him?”
“Ummm yes sure I can do that. Is, it safe?” She asked the three, experienced to her eyes, survivors.
Jack, Tule, Yuma, Korl, and Kala shared some looks between them. She looked between each of them, face paling as she did so.
Kala jumped in placatingly, “nowhere’s safe, but out here is probably safer than in there.” She threw a thumb towards the slowly unlocking door.
She thought, fairly quickly as the Door made louder and louder sounds. "Oh ok I’ll stay here then, I guess.” Jonah rubbed her back and whispered, this time Jack caught it, how proud he was of her and that he loved her. Seemed kind of weird stuff to say. She seemed calm now but no one was still paying attention.
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Jonah stuck close to Kala’s group, finding safety in numbers.
Next was Tule, still limping from the shock at the Terminal, he spoke in hushed tones to Korl and the other man and woman.
There was that guy, with the pink gauntlet. As far as Jack was concerned that was HIS gauntlet. What had that kid done? Punch a few crabs? Wasted on him.
He’d get that off him later. If he tried to take it now the chances of something going bad in the group were high, especially now that the kid was in Kala’s group. Jack doubted that the SI was out of tricks on the other side of the Door.
Once it started its slide in half it did so quickly. The boom of the Door coming to rest in the wall echoed through the room. The first thing they saw was obvious. It was the giant, opaque, blue dome dominating the center of the room.
It looked much more dense than that the one before, Jack was unsure if it was the same energetics. It had pulsing blue and orange streaks. If one looked at it for an extended period they would be able to tell that it was growing brighter and the streaks more frequent as time went on.
The room was huge but it was impossible to tell if there were other light sources. The blue dome as well as the red and blue flashing streaks washed out the room completely.
Around the shield, in a dozen haphazard-looking circular rows, were hundreds of Cryo-Pods. The back of the Pods sat nearly 10 feet high. The face of the Pods, directed towards the blue dome, were made of combinations of glass and machinery.
Jack stopped, they weren't the same, but anything even close to that type of Pod, he'd only seen one other time in the Labs. It was the one he crawled out of.
It was for different reasons but everyone’s attention was immediately focused on the Pods.
“Most of them are empty,” Yuma observed and a pulse of release went through the 13.
The Door’s opening had been echoing softly through the room. After it faded the silence stuck out uncomfortably.
The thoughts of crabs sneaking up through the walls and the recent memory of what the energy of the dome had done to the crab. No thank you. Jack started to wander off, following close to but keeping an aisle between him and the wall; his feet clanging as he walked across the metal grating. Yuma tailed behind him, scanning with her rifle, footsteps silent.
Kala wasn’t sure what she was going to do. This place was terrible for her, sight-lines were absolutely shit with all these Pods around. She didn’t want to get near the dome either. They wandered in the same direction as Jack and Yuma.
Tule looked after Yuma, a memory resurfaced.
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Where am I? Wait, who am I?
I couldn’t hear anything, see anything. I floated in a state of nothing. I had, have? I couldn’t measure time.
I started to think since it was all I could do.
I remembered, I tried. It felt like I should know my memories, that I should be able to see them here, surrounding me. Instead my eyes were open in a cave miles below the surface of sight.
A cave…
That connected to something, a memory! Of being trapped, no. Lost. Lost in a cave. Someone else was there at the edge of the memory, her voice started to break through the silence. It was a her! Still, he couldn’t make it out.
“Wake up!”
A hand slapped across my face and my surroundings came into focus. The noise came first. Loud. Metal against metal, ringing sounds of impacts came from every angle. Sight swam into focus. A group surrounded me, led by a man with a sword. He cut down another man weilding a wicked-looking axe and then ducked; he snatched what looked like a giant crab in mid jump, and then threw it into the middle of another group of Humans. Cries and screams echoed through the room. He was in a Cryo-Pod, that sounded right, he remembered that. He looked to his right and saw that he was the last Pod of this row.
There was supposed to be another Pod to his right. Wasn’t there? He was sure of it. A familiar echo of a girl’s voice, ‘sleep well!’
“SwordLord! It’s turning, we have two, we have to leave!” The man with the sword turned and looked at me. His stare was hard.
“Can you run?” I wasn’t given time to answer as two men dragged me the rest of the way out of the Pod. They also were taking a woman with them.
“You, you can’t just take me!” I struggled against his grip. It was powerful. Another slap.
“Look around! Do you want to stay?”
I looked around.
I did not want to stay. Humans had stopped fighting each other as more and more crabs came into the room.
“No, no I don’t.” I followed them.
I remembered now. A sister, MY sister. She was in the Pod next to me. I stumbled and looked back. There was no Pod next to me.
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The booming clank of the Door closing brought Tule back to the present.
Korl, Telane, and Cura were all patiently waiting for him in a defensive circle, occasionally glancing back.
“Telane, Cora. You stay with Korl. Korl, keep close. Not that close.”
He grinned at Korl, a shared memory passed between them.
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“I don’t like this one fucking bit. What’s stopping the circle from expanding again?” As if Kala's words set it in motion the dome exploded out to the halfway point of the room and then collapsed into motes of light.
“Oh fuck.”
“Well maybe if you didn’t say anything none of this would have happened.”
“Shut the fuck up Kensey. You too Mikey, I don’t want to hear it about your theory either.”
“What are you talking at me for? I wasn’t going to say anything!”
He was going to say something.