Now that he was closer to the tunnel he had to stop himself from diving in with his Affinity. It was hard, it didn’t feel like any type of electricity he had felt before, its unfamiliarity is how he figured out what to look for.
But this was definitely it.
“Why did we stop?” Yuma had pulled up her rifle and started pacing it across their dim surroundings.
“It’s here.”
“Here?” Yuma and Jonah studied the spot, Jonah put his hand against it and felt it, Yuma put her hand against it and did not. It just felt like electricity. Jack scooted them away and pulled out a bladeclaw and started cutting.
To have the blade be strong enough he would have to go deep if he went deep then he would make contact with the cables. However interesting and unfamiliar it was, Jack got a deep sense of foreboding at the thought of making contact with it.
“May I?”
Jack moved an eyebrow and stepped back. The tip of Jonah’s finger sparked and flared out. The small flame tightened and tightened, orange, red, yellow, white and round, the tip had turned almost liquid. He readjusted his goggles then breathed in and out. He placed his other hand against the ribbed metal, moved it side to side in small increments. His white hot finger closed against the metal.
“Bit to the right," Jack volunteered as his finger touched.
Jonah closed his eyes then moved a bit to the right. He opened his eyes again and started to cut.
Once he carved out half a meter sized square he placed both of his pinky fingers against opposite corners it and suspended the hot piece of metal. Jonah tossed it to the side.
“Pretty impressive old man.” Yuma also looked on in mild interest. Jack thought it was cool but so what? The blade would have done it eventually. Huh, maybe he didn’t have to do everything himself.
Jack had been expecting a Terminal, instead, there was an input plug.
Jonah and Yuma held their makeshift portables in their hands and looked at each other.
“Yours,” “Not mine.”
“What are you both doing? Someone plug it in.” Jack wagged the AI disk impatiently.
“Well you’re not using mine.”
“This is my father’s portable. I’m not using it.”
Jack watched them go back and forth. “Listen, maybe nothing’s going to happen to your portables, I have the AI disk remember? It can probably beat the SI.”
“Maybe?” “Probably?”
Each had latched onto a different word. The delayed social implication finally hit him. ‘Maybe’ and ‘Probably’ were probably, no, definitely, the last words someone wanted to hear before volunteering one of their few personal effects.
“Just listen, nothing is going to happen. I’ll put the disk with it and then I’ll plug it in. You’ve seen it before, right Yuma?”
Her eyes refused to make contact, Jack switched his attention to Jonah.
“What? Go look at her, don’t look at me!”
“I can ask or I can take it.”
“I won’t let you take it!” Jonah was sounding increasingly frantic.
“Jonah, if I have to I will hurt you then I will take it.”
Quite frankly Jack didn’t give a shit why they didn’t want to use their portables. He took a step towards Jonah. The flash of annoyance flared into something more as a series of tiny grievances and small things quickly built on top of each other. When they had ignored him, the wasted time, and the dawdling showboating that Jonah just did.
Yuma stamped her foot then shoved her portable at Jack’s chest. She zapped him when he grabbed it.
“Thanks Yuma.”
“Well its good you’ve seen some sense. I have important research on here, more valuable than what yours has! Probably filled with Old Earth movies. What centuries are they from?”
Jack could see the blood, or electrical he wasn't sure, pressure build in Yuma. The electrical pressure or whatever it was called that flowed through her started to build. Old Earth movies? Maybe those would spark some memories.
He took the tablet device from Yuma, silently chided himself for the fraction of a second-long debate about checking out the movies, then he stacked the AI disk on top of it and extended a cord from the portable into the port.
Nothing happened for a second, then two. Then a shudder writhed through the cables and and a burst of intensely strong electric current was split in half, some went into the crab and the rest pulled back, upstream away from the giant crab. The wires wider than his forearm slithered quickly back to places unknown.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Jack could see the electricity turn unstable in the crab, no, not that severe, more unbalanced. The crab slowed its draw from its surrounding cables in a struggle to balance the cycling energy flowing inside of it. Jack saw the energy settle, now it was spinning and growing even faster than before. There still remained some instability, he couldn't tell why from here. Still, it was definitely growing faster now.
Jack cut through the cable shield like it was an oversized artery, they continued on the other side, looking for the next one.
“Jonah don’t you dare say the c-word.”
The dim red that filtered through the grating faded for a few seconds before coming back online and releasing an entirely more powerful series of chain-laser flickered overhead. Unfamiliar screams delicately floated down. They were a surprise.
“I don’t recognize those screams.”
Jonah’s face twisted, “You know what everyone’s scream sounds like?”
Jack, wanting to move it on, “I couldn’t hear anything but if Yuma didn't recognize them then they must have come from Humans that took the South Run.”
Yuma and Jonah shared a look.
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“Clan Head, should we launch a missile?”
Lee looked around him, the crab was impossibly large, perhaps a 100 lengths tall.
“Stop firing.”
Leanne repeated his order down, across the scattered soldiers hunkered behind Cryo-Pods. She waited for new orders as her head scanned back and forth. She quietly shouted corrections to a few individuals as she waited.
The Clan Head didn’t know what to do. The massive crab’s repeated heavy fire was too effective against the steady, deliberate Shield Guard force of the Kintu Clan. Not to mention the translucent red shield surrounding the crab itself. No projectiles had gotten through.
“Head Monitor.”
“Yes Clan Head?”
Clan Head Lee stared at Junior Monitor Yoseh. No, Head Monitor Yoseh, he had done that.
“Clan Head, the crab, giant crab, has a shield, we have a Monitor team making an approach. No projectiles or energetics we have are able to pierce through it. We haven’t attempted any of the heaviest ordinance according to your order.s We’ve observed cables connecting to the bottom of the crab, we are in the process of tracing them to their sources now.”
Good. Clan Head Lee liked this new Head Monitor, a little tense, a little too eager, and he gave him more knowledge than necessary.
They turned their attention to the Monitor team consisting of 3 Monitors and 3 Shield Guard, with shields. A line of repeating laser fire strafed the group and the escorts caught the laser. One mistimed his block and took a glancing blow that erased half of his thigh, the 6th laser bolt after that punched through the middle of his face. The five rushed behind a pair of Cryo-Pods as the giant crab brought both of its repeaters towards the group.
The cannons stopped rotating and built energy. They punched through the Pods and and shields behind them. Burning another set of perfect holes through the remaining two escorts. The streams of smaller laser fire expanded the holes and cut down two of the Monitors.
She racked her brain, listened to every stray piece of information that floated by her, whether it was directly said to her or not. She looked around, she put her hand to the grating on the floor.
“Clan Head, the cables go under the floor,” she stamped her feet, “under this.”
“Stop efforts to study the crab’s shield; get everyone in cautious, defensive positions. And get people down there.”
“Aye Clan Head.”
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They found the next cable and repeated the process. After the electricity was cut and the wires whipped back to wherever they came from, they heard shouting on the other side. Jack cut through and stopped.
There was a group of 5, three that gave off a vibe like Jonah but were dressed rather nicely. The other two had shields, Jack thought his was better. They also had what looked like small rifles, and hard stares. Jack wasn’t impressed.
“Why are you dressed like that?”
“Like what?” Jack had no idea what these people were talking about, he wasn’t going to say anything about their ‘uniforms’.
“What do you mean ‘what?’ You are wearing crab skin!”
Jack looked down, they had a point. Maybe that’s why everyone had been so jumpy around him.
“Fair enough.” He looked at Yuma, she seemed calm. Well, calm enough.
Jack continued following his Affinity, Yuma stepping in front of him. Jonah nodded with a smile in passing and continued after them.
“Monitor, what do you want to do?”
“They disabled this one right? Well, find out how they did it!”
The youngest of the three Monitors was shooed away and ran up to the group of 3. He stopped short with a barrel in his face.
“I, we don’t mean any harm. We just want to know how you disabled it without Retribution.”
At the word 'retribution' the three shuddered to varying degrees, Uller's flaking, transparent skin fresh in their minds. Jonah clutched his portable tighter against his chest.
“Did I say something? Apologies if I did.”
Jack recovered the fastest, “Don’t worry about it, did you guys come from the South?”
“Yes! And you’re from the North correct? That’s good, did you meet Jack?”
He was impressed with himself, he held it to only one extra blink.
“Yeah I’ve met him, why do you want to know?”
“Why do I want to know, what? If you knew the person who burned every Aux line in the Labs calling for a Core Run then he forced everyone’s hand when he opened every door in the Labs.”
“Fair en-”
Yuma piped in, “It’s him, he’s Jack. You don’t have a problem with that do you?”
The crowd behind the young Monitor discussed something between themselves as they cautiously trailed the 3 Northerners and their fellow Monitor.
Jack wasn’t sure how to feel, on one hand he definitely didn’t need Yuma making choices or talking for him and on the other she did sound a bit protective or defensive, he wasn't sure which but it did feel kind of nice.
An older-looking man spoke up, “Jack, we know the way to the next power-cable.”
Jack stopped, turned, nodded. “Ok.”
The three followed after the the group of ‘Southerners’ until they stopped and challenges were called, repeated, and shared back and forth.
Jack and Yuma shared a glance, how the hell is this working for them?
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“Clan Head! One of our outer patrols has brought Jack here.”
“Oh?” They had moved most of their operations under the floor. Their temporary ‘basecamp’ strattled the huge cable and only came above ground behind a particularly dense grouping of Pods.
Lee watched the young man walk up so did Leanne. Jack had deep brown hair, blonde tips. Eyes were brown with some gold, or light yellow. Misshaped right hand, one finger. Covered in fluids in various states of aeration.
Leanne studied Jack for a moment then her attention was pulled toward the short woman walking next to him. She had pitch black hair with long curls, shoulder length. Her suit was torn but she looked put together. Her lower face was covered in dirty and bloody gauze. She was studying her as well. Yuma saw tall, probably around Jack’s size, maybe taller depending on how long her legs were. She had a neat cut, blonde half shoulder length and the back in a bun. Her face was impassive and attractive, but severe and was mostly empty of emotion.
Jack waved and they continued past the Clan Head and the Sentinel, down onto the other side of the cable, the port wasn’t accessible from the other side.
“Did he just… wave? Where did he go?”
The Sentinel needed data. She pulled the Monitors who travelled with him, “Tell me everything.”