Chapter Seventy
The underground battle
Meyrin. Geneva, Switzerland.
Subterranean facilities of the CEEN Supercollider.
The enormous accelerator tunnel structure had become a battlefield for Odin Squadron. The first battle had been fought against the team of droids that had come their way trying to stop them.
Lizbeth had destroyed a few of them, using only her Vocal Resonance, while the rest were destroyed with the magnetic projectiles from the weapons. The projectiles had a device similar to the rosebud projectile, but it was only activated when it came in contact with the target. If the projectile missed its target, it would trace its way back to the weapon without detonating.
Lizbeth's Vocal Resonance was incredibly powerful, although it had some limitations. That was her fey magical ability and had earned her the title of Banshee. Despite the title, the truth was that the ability itself was more closely related to the ability possessed by aquatic feys, especially mermaids, to defend themselves and attack. Although in Lizbeth's case hers had some different characteristics and the Vocal Resonance had wide effects and different uses, yet at that moment the main function she was using was to destroy those droids.
It was a short fight but they felt that every second lost was valuable minutes that delayed them from the final objective.
The motley crew moved quickly through the corridors of the complex, aware of the gravity of their mission. Each of them knew that stopping the accelerator activation was crucial. From what Pierson had said, before he fell unconscious, whatever was going to happen was something that was going to happen at any time that morning. Given the confrontation they had encountered with the first tactical droids, it was clear that they didn't want any interruptions, although it was unclear how they had discovered them in the first place.
The team entered a room, following the map the drone had loaded into the Neurowires, when into the same room came another larger group of tactical droids.
“Everyone behind me!” roared Lizbeth, removing the mask covering her mouth, and no one objected to that order.
With cold determination, Lizbeth prepared for combat. Her voice was about to make its entrance into the battlefield once again.
Without wasting any time, Lizbeth released a high-pitched scream. A sound so powerful that it echoed through the room. The directed sonic waves spread like a shockwave, vibrating the metal structure of the droids in the center of the room. The first droids were destroyed in a burst of sparks and fragments, their internal circuits irreparably damaged. Despite the droids' material resistance, it was because of Lizbeth's skill that they could be destroyed. That was because the core material of Lizbeth's Shy Organ could resonate with objects that could be made of fractium alloys.
However, droids were not easy to stop and it was not as if she could use it consecutively, because it forced her throat every time she did so. Even more so in an enclosed environment and she also had to be careful with the direction of her shout, so as not to cause damage to her teammates.
A new wave of advanced units appeared, their armored shell resisted the direct sonic attacks that were a little weaker. Lizbeth changed her strategy, using her body's agility to move with speed and precision, while the others did the same and engaged in a battle.
A group of droids advanced towards Lizbeth, firing bursts of those magnetic projectiles that she dodged while moving with the agility of a cat on stage. Lizbeth, with Jade at her side, dodged the shots with graceful movements, their martial arts skills allowing them to perform spins and jumps with an almost choreographed fluidity.
Shin, for his part, fired at those approaching the others, then fought at close range at those who had ended up getting closer to his range. He was trying to fight with parts of his armor without damaging the new clothes he had, which was difficult enough given the situation.
In one swift move, he launched a kick that sent the nearest droid reeling. Taking advantage of the destabilization, Shin applied a precise blow to the armor's attachment point, causing the droid to fall to the ground with a metallic clang. With an accurate blow he destroyed the vertebral junction and ripped off the head and then crushed it with his hand.
He used the tactical sword combined with shots from his weapon to take out the droids that lunged at him. The blade of the sword had been configured to his liking and with each thrust that penetrated the droids the blade changed its configuration to rotate on itself in a helical fashion and destroy the droids' armor. At that point all he could do was minimize the enemy forces and take out as many as he could alone. Fortunately, all the fatigue he had felt was gone. He had been under the lake for years, although for him it had been only hours.
He used a wall to propel himself against three droids that were getting dangerously close to Ryuuji and then looked towards Lizbeth, but she seemed to be coping quite well against her share of enemies accompanied by Jade.
While facing more droids, Lizbeth combined her sonic ability which, while weaker, could now still use other effects such as sonic wave distortion to confuse the enemy. She would emit concentrated sonic waves from a distance and these would bounce back with the magic programming system through the points she had determined and then she would approach to perform attacks with magnetic weapon shots or melee, her movements impeccable and calculated.
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Some droids began to adapt to her attacks, deploying energy shields that partially blocked the sonic waves and stopped the magnetic projectiles. Lizbeth frowned, recognizing that she needed to adjust her focus. She concentrated on the weak points of the shields, directing pulsing sonic waves with a frequency that managed to penetrate the defenses of some of the droids.
If I can't get through the shields, I'll make them wobble! Lizbeth thought, adjusting the frequency of her ability to affect the droids' balance and stability. Each time she managed to destabilize them, she swooped in to finish the job with a lethal combination of kicks and punches, or with gunfire if they were far enough away.
“Candy,” she commanded, the turtle backpack and almost instantly a candy appeared in her hand which she popped into her mouth. The concentrated honey candy was what helped her recover quickly from using her ability in a row.
As the confrontation progressed, the droids became more aggressive, sending units with enhanced capabilities and coordinated tactics to attack the squadron from multiple fronts. Lizbeth responded with equal sophistication, dodging enemy gunfire and using her sonic ability to create a series of destructive waves that affected multiple droids simultaneously.
With total concentration, Lizbeth created a series of sonic pulses that destroyed droids that came too close. Each sound wave was precise, the synchronization between her sonic skills and her martial arts prowess displaying an almost artistic form of combat. Something she had honed over time, though in her early years and decades as a fey she had never put any effort into honing the skill in every way she could. She had always used it in a crude way.
Finally, with a final series of sharp, precise screams, Lizbeth managed to disable most of the droids.
The room was filled with metal fragments and residual smoke from the explosions along with debris produced by the combat of Shin and Granger and the others.
Lizbeth's breathing was somewhat heavy, but her posture remained upright and defiant.
She looked around, making sure there were no more immediate threats left. The squad had also finished taking care of the remaining ones. Stuart had just shot a droid he had tackled to the ground, while Natsuki and Ryuuji were also finishing with their part. Shin sheathed his tactical sword. Granger had just crushed the last one with his hands and the help of the military enhancements he had implanted in his body, while relying on the exoskeleton's own pressure from the equipment they were wearing.
With a satisfied smile, as she wiggled her rabbit ears, Jade walked over to a nearby control console that was on, knowing that there was still much to do. She had to extract information.
“One more battle won,” Lizbeth said to herself Lizbeth, her voice still echoing with the vibration of victory. “But this is far from over.” Then she brought a hand to her tactical armor-covered chest and pursed her lips.
“Are you okay?” Shin asked who had approached from behind and grabbed her shoulder.
Lizbeth gasped and smiled nervously “Yeah... I guess I should have squeezed more out of me this morning…”
“The what?”
“The milk,” she replied as she popped a new piece of candy into her mouth.
Shin lowered his eyebrows in disbelief. Only Lizbeth could say something like that after a fight, but well, it was a problem. “What happened? Did you get hit in the chest?”
“It's nothing. Just a little drop, that's all. How about you? Are you all right?”
Shin retracted his armor a bit and scratched the mark on his lower back. “Better than ever,” he replied. “I guess the resurrection took away all the discomfort I had.”
That was true, it had been a long time since he had felt so good and light even though the armor felt a little heavier. The mass of particles had increased, but it was actually more shielding for him, something he could use to fight with once he learned to control it better, because he felt the weight was a bit unbalanced.
“Why are you scratching?” Lizbeth asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I don't know, it's itching right now.”
“I have the updated maps,” Jade announced.
The team entered the complex's systems through an access using security codes that Jade had hacked. Despite the battle won, the air was still tense and charged with a vibrant anticipation of what they might find ahead.
A dry metallic sound echoed, and the security doors they had come through closed behind them. Red lights flashed on and a deafening alarm began to sound, alerting the occupants of the complex to their presence there.
“Again? Are there any nanny trackers?” Natsuki shouted, her electric eyes searching for a nearby control panel.
“Nah. The droids we just knocked down...” Stuart said. “They probably sent the signal of where we are.”
“It doesn't matter!” Granger replied. “They know what we're coming for, and that doesn't change the objective.”
“How's it going upstairs?” Ryuuji asked.
Jade shook her head. “No new reports, but no subway checkpoints have been taken. The fighting is still on the surface, but it's being controlled.”
“What did you find out from the map?”
“Oh right! Look. This has to be Professor Ishijima and Lee Reubens, right?”
Jade showed console with the map of the place. There could be seen that on the updated site map there were areas of which they had no knowledge whatsoever. But at least they had the updated information to move around the place.
“You've got to be kidding me, the energy cube device is more than a kilometer away,” Granger said, looking at a point far from where they were. Making their way against an army of droids and mercenaries sounded normal to him, but it was another matter if they were racing against time. “And the elevator is about three hundred meters away from the point of the cubes.”
Jade nodded. “Yes and from what I can see from the security systems it must have been guarded when the alarm went off.”
Stuart pointed to a spot that was only about six hundred meters from where they were. But it was a path that branched off and led to two huge chambers marked only as LC1 and LC2. “What is this? This is what you were talking about?”
“Yes, just an hour ago two subjects were moved from these two points which was the former infirmary of this place and each was placed in one of these rooms.”
“We can't get a picture of what those things are or who those people are that were moved?”
“No. There are no cameras. The surveillance system in place has few cameras in service. Almost all of the surveillance security comes from the droids. That's why they know where we are. There are no cameras here.”
Lizbeth looked at Shin who was staring thoughtfully at the map. She knew him all too well. Even though to others he showed no visible emotions she could read the slight changes of expression on his face. “Hey. What's up?”
“I'm just thinking there's no way Oxy could have done time travel. She shouldn't be the target in one of those things.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Well, there are two options. She either traveled back in time, to a time where there was no way to leave us a clue from the past... or she died without having a chance to leave a message... Or a third option. She actually traveled back in time, but to an alternate timeline where you can't intervene with what has already happened.”
“You want to bet that's the case? As far as we're concerned time travel could be happening right now,” Stuart said, frowning.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Shin snorted, he had noticed a slight angry tone in the redhead, but Stuart was right. “Yeah, that doesn't change that something bad could really happen right now if we don't stop it.”
Lizbeth looked at him sideways. It was sad but it was the truth.
“Well then let's split up, just like we agreed,” Granger said.
Once again they went over the positions and agreed. Jade and Granger would go to the entrance to take control of the elevator, using the heavy capabilities they had not yet used for combat. It was a common measure to economize forces in early combat and they had been good at it. The droid weapons could be used by the droids only and the squadron could not take those weapons in reserve in case they needed them.
Lizbeth, Ryuuji and Natsuki would go a good part of the way with Jade and Granger and infiltrate the cube area while Shin, and Stuart would head to see the two in those chambers to make sure who it was that had been transported there and see if it was Oxy and Professor Lee Reubens. If they could get them out of that place and if they were the targets, there would be no reason to continue the experiment. As long as they were right.
“Are you sure they'll be all right?” asked Granger to Lizbeth, looking at Shin and Stuart who were looking at the map.
“I'm more worried about you guys actually,” Lizbeth replied.
“No need. Me and Jade are enough.” Granger turned to look at Shin and a bead of sweat trickled down his cheek. “Are you sure those two will be okay...with that Keelian on the team?”
Lizbeth smiled. “Don't worry, my husband is the best,” she said as she patted her chest proudly.
Granger continued to look at Shin, who was currently scratching his back against the corner of a nearby wall. “Yeah, he's a genius from what I can see…”
Suddenly, from the ceiling and walls, parts were destroyed and from the holes, tactical droids emerged, advancing with military precision, their single vertical eye glowing an ominous red. The droids, armed with automatic weapons, opened fire, their bullets buzzing through the air like angry wasps. They were normal projectiles, they were not using magnetic ammunition. The Odin team split up on opposite sides of the room and took cover behind the half-destroyed concrete columns.
“You guys go ahead, we'll take care of these!” Shin shouted and looked at Stuart, who nodded.
“But...!” began Lizbeth.
“We'll be fine, Agent Londonderry!” assured Stuart.
“Lad, don't use energy shields, unless you want to blow up the entire facility!” Shin exclaimed, stepping out from behind the column where he had been hiding with Stuart. The droids concentrated fire on him, giving the others time to get closer to the exit of the path they had to take. Even though Stuart was older than Shin himself at Nevermore he wasn't going to argue. After all he might be the new guy, but Shin was the oldest in age on that team.
Stuart nodded and stepped out from behind the column to the side opposite Shin. He raised his hand and generated an electromagnetic field with one of the exoskeleton's defense functions, deflecting the projectiles. Next to him, Shin manipulated his particle armor creating a shield to return the bullets to his assailants in a shower of sparks, dismantling the droids with his own offense.
“Let's go! Each to his target!” roared Granger and nodded. “Good luck! Agent Stuart, keep the communication channel open!”
The senior team activated the cloak and moved off down their path, leaving Shin and Stuart behind to do battle. The path they had ahead was different from the others and was on the side the droids had come from.
The corridors became a battlefield for both of them. Stuart could count on the fingers of his hands the number of times he had been in a battle like that. The last one had been last week on the dock next to that detective.
Inwardly he thought that he would not like a repeat of what he had seen at the end of that case, when that ship practically disappeared in a plasma inferno that devoured all the evidence.
He summoned a new type of plasma cutting weapon, engulfing the droids limbs in hellish flames, as Shin moved as a blur of steel and black particles, his tactical sword slicing through the enemies with lethal grace.
“Don't stop, lad!” shouted Shin, moving under the flickering lights of the place and the bullets ricocheting off his armor. “We've got to rescue those two!”
Stuart nodded and Shin just hoped he was wrong in his prediction of Oxy. They both defeated the remaining droids and began to advance towards their destination. It was at that moment that Shin saw some electric blue flashes flash across the place they were passing through.
Those particles had returned, but they were few compared to what had happened with the plane. As he thought, they were related.
Whatever it was, it was a sign. The direction they were coming from was the place where they had to go.
***
Lukas Peaslee sighed and looked around the control station, which until a few moments ago had been buzzing with activity. Everyone present was silent at that moment connected to the main database that recorded the accelerator data. They were almost in a hypnotic state.
Lukas Peaslee was also receiving hundreds of data, but that was normal.
It was the reason why they were helping in that madness. That data would open a new door to civilization if it could crystallize.
The fractus core of time might not exist after that, but with the data obtained there was a chance that a new dream could be fulfilled in another way.
A dream that had been frozen when a certain billionaire magnate had disappeared with his ship.
An experiment to save the world. And the data for the expansion of civilization through space.
That was the reason why the Council had kept quiet about it. That was the reason, or at least one of the reasons. Janus had offered the experiment data to the council and the Council had accepted.
The dream of manipulating spacetime with a warp engine.
That data from the fractus core would be opening a new era in a few years. The technology might take a while, but they already had what they needed. The problem was the material.
However Gehirn had done it, it had been perfection. If only one person had done it, then joint effort could do it too.
The idea of the warp drive was a dream that many considered crazy because of the implications and the types of theories proposed.
If Gehirn's engine had been unstable, it is certain that with gravitational wave detectors they would have been able to detect its direction, due to the signals that it was theorized that a warp engine could leave in spacetime.
That had not happened when Gehirn had fled.
So there were two possibilities: Either it was all a lie and Gehirn was in hiding nearby. Or the engine that mad genius had created was stable enough to leave no signs of gravitational waves.
Something impossible.
[Final Collision.]
The warning appeared for a billionth of a second on everyone's Neurowire as it occurred and they downloaded the data.
They had done it. It was complete.
From then on everything was in automatic mode to complete the final steps. They had done their part of it.
The final collision had swept the final particles from those forty-eight fragments of the nucleus to their final point. The fractus nucleus and finally to the Pening Traps.
From that point on, it was all over for them.
Several of the scientists looked at each other and some sighed nervously while others laughed.
“See you in a few weeks or months I guess,” one of them said.
“See you.”
Some gave each other a warm handshake, while others joked.
The first to die occurred at the farthest point. The second on the huge screen that kept displaying data collapsed as if it were a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Some fell to the ground with a thud, while others had veins popping out of their temples and others had ocular capillaries bursting.
The data was too much for the minds of all of them. Even with quantum computers that dump of information from the collision was too much, but it was expected. They were talking about time management.
They didn't want to leave data in solid data sources that could be accessed by aeons. A security measure against what happened years before, when an aeon infected an entire country with information through hard sources that then spread to the Neurowires. Therefore, those were the minds that had been marked by Janus to carry out that experiment.
They had all fallen one by one, until the only one left standing was Lukas Peaslee.
The director walked to one of the terminals and quickly typed something on the holographic keyboard.
[LC2 secure deactivated. Function reset after second opening].
Lukas Peaslee sighed and braced himself with both hands on the terminal table. And drops of blood began to fall from his nose and ears, as he felt his vision turn red and felt a twinge in his brain.
“Good luck my other self, this is going to give you a good headache,” Lukas Peaslee said, smiling weakly as a trickle of blood began to trickle down his chin.
His eyes turned dark red and a second later he fell to the ground as a red circle began to form on the ground around his head.
The clone had died and the fragment of artificial consciousness that had formed him in the last few weeks was now traveling to rejoin the real consciousness.
At the remote checkpoints the same thing was happening. While the battle on the surface and the infiltration teams were advancing they could not know what they would find when they reached the checkpoints.
***
At that very moment in several parts of the planet and the Orbital Belt several people were fainting. All of them scientists with different areas of study and specialization. All of them had suffered an overload of the Neurowire system. An influx of data was being sent to their heads and had caused them to experience everything from mild blackouts to clonic storms, due to the information being processed by the neural assistant and then sent to the brain.
Among one of them was someone named Lukas Peaslee. He was drinking a glass of water at the time.
He had just gotten up and it was still dark outside in Baltimore. His wife was awakened by the sudden sound of something heavy falling to the floor below. She got out of bed and went downstairs, only to find her husband convulsing on the kitchen floor.
Lukas Peasless was unaware that a clone of him had been alive for only a few weeks. But the same was true for all those who had participated in the experiment in France and Switzerland.
All of them almost involuntary participants.
At that very moment, ships and security teams from the Council were being deployed to secure the scientists.
Those involved never thought that the clause that many signed upon graduation from the university could result in the Council having the right to create copies of the signatory for experimental purposes in case of planetary security.
A clone with a short biological life span. But, as far as the public opinion knew, this clause had never been put into practice. Mostly because of the laws that prevented the creation of a new consciousness in a clone. Clones were only allowed in the case of insurance where the body was in such a state of deterioration that recovery was not possible. In such a case, the consciousness was moved to the new body.
Janus' call for help to certain persons of power within the Council had made that transgression of law possible and as far as the Council could be assured, that would never come to public light either.
***
Shin and Stuart stopped in their tracks.
They had been running for the last few minutes and fighting off the droids and mercenaries that had gotten in their way. But at that moment they were stopped because there was someone different in front of them.
Stuart had seen her from the reports. That was the woman who had attacked Pyrene Station. The mysterious woman with pink hair and a mask covering her face. She was wearing that white suit of armor tight to her body, although some parts of it showed some slight red patterns.
That pink-haired woman was standing about a hundred meters away from them and had stopped. But she wasn't looking at Stuart.
She was looking at Shin.
Shin for his part had furrowed an eyebrow in surprise at her presence.
Who is that? Shin thought. There was something familiar about her even though he couldn't tell what and the mark on her lower back stung even more. On the other hand, the particles of the armor were moving strangely, almost as if they were unstable in that presence. His attempt to keep the clothes safe proved unsuccessful as the particles were breaking through the reinforced fabric and destroying it.
***
The mark on her shoulder blades itched annoyingly, but she didn't care about that at that moment.
EVE was terrified and excited at the same time.
She knew that feeling. It was the same feeling she had felt when she had been in Pyrene. That feeling of ominous terror that had invaded her when she was leaving that station, where she had rescued Stan and Rum and the container.
That could not be an experiment or a simulation.
No.
For one simple reason, she had never felt so much terror in her life and she couldn't explain why.
She had never felt more desire to fight in her life and she didn't know why.
She wanted to run away. But she wanted to fight. She wanted to get out of that place and never come back. To go back to Benjamin and forget everything that had happened in the last few days.
But, at that moment, she also wanted to fight.
Why?
EVE could not explain it, it was a strange feeling that went against her survival instinct. Her head was telling her: run away, get out of there. While another part of her, perhaps much more primitive, was telling her: you have to fight what is in front of you.
EVE had not noticed, but the white armor that covered her body was no longer as before. The substance that composed it was unstable and had a liquid consistency. Thin threads of that substance floated and moved connecting different parts of the armor and flowed around her like rings, at the same time revealing part of the naked skin.
But showing her nudity at that moment did not bother her in the least.
That feeling of fury and anger was taking control of her body completely, even though her mind was telling her that she had to get out of there.
With mixed feelings she rushed towards that tall man wrapped in that black armor.
***
Lugrin. Lake Lemac, France.
A group of soldiers and technicians docked the boats in the temporary harbor. They were part of the scouting team and had left the task to the crab drones to take over. Under the weather conditions it was best to wait for the rain to stop for a while.
One of them put the boat on magnetic lock and paused in his task to look at his partner.
“Whew…”
His partner at his side and the soldiers looked at each other.
“What was that?”
“It felt...weird.”
A couple of them touched their stomachs.
“I felt light. Did everyone feel the same?”
They all looked at each other and nodded. It was almost like the sensation of floating in space, a feeling quite familiar to anyone.
Some ran diagnostics with the Neurowire, but there was no abnormality, yet everyone had felt a sudden lack of gravity in the body. It was only for a second but they had felt it.
At that same moment, two transport ships arrived at the command center in Lugrin.
From one of those ships came down a hurried dwarf carrying a small industrial container.
“So, where is everyone?” Thor asked, as he headed towards Nevermore's tent. He was irritated that he hadn't been able to communicate with Mai or any of the others. Whatever they were doing they had better be ready to hear what he had to tell them.
“I wonder the same thing.” Thor turned around and then saw that the people on the other transport were old acquaintances.
“What are you doing here?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing. Aren't you supposed to be on the Edinburgh case?”
In front of him were Mii, Rein and Noki.
Mii and Rein were dressed in black and covered their heads with their pilot hoods, while Noki was wearing a black and green suit from which hung several loose straps.
“Your straitjacket buckles have come loose,” Thor said, addressing Noki.
“Shut up!” said Noki in annoyance.
As Noki and Thor got into an argument, Mii looked in the direction of the lake and touched her stomach. She couldn't say why, but she felt strange. A slight dizziness had taken over her body. She hadn't felt that sensation in ages. But it was something else that bothered her and it had appeared when they were on the ship, more precisely on the last leg when they were about to land. It had intensified when they got off the ship.
The raindrops were falling on Mii's face, but she didn't mind the wind and the drops hitting her face.
She had not felt that sensation for a long time and it made her feel strange. It was a feeling that, for someone of her status within Nevermore, should not be there.
It was the feeling of being helpless and not knowing what to do.
The memory of seeing herself alone and pregnant in a dangerous world came back to her mind.
Mii took a breath and clenched her fists.
As quickly as it had come, the feeling in her stomach had disappeared and the feeling of dizziness vanished, but not the discomfort that feeling had caused her.
Fear.
She had felt the same fear centuries ago. Fear for her and for her child. That little girl, the product of something fleeting and transient, had become the reason for her life. Thinking about her daughter had taken away the feeling of fear and had given her back control of her emotions.
Mii swallowed and looked at Rein.
Rein's eyes were on the ground and she did not look pleased, but she did not seem to share the fear Mii had felt. “Something is wrong with the Ley Line flow,” Rein said and frowned worriedly. “I don't like this at all.”