Hrrm.

The ship shuddered underneath Alex's feet as it came in for a landing. Ahead of them, the massive metal gates of Tartarus lay open wide like the tall mouth of a sleeping giant. The more he looked at the massive dome structure, the more sure Alex was that core shenanigans played a role in its construction.

He wasn't a tactics expert and never joined any military, but he didn't think the structure was a good design. The thick stone walls were great to hold off attacks for sure, but once they were cracked, they would fold onto the defenders. There weren't bunker busters in the nightsea like there were back on Earth, but there had to be something similar in terms of curses or some other weirdness.

Granted, that was assuming that there weren't some ways to keep the structure propped up.

Whoosh.

"We're really doing it," Erick whispered beside him as they passed into the gate's shadow.

"Stay frosty," Alex said, patting him on the shoulder as he looked out over the inside of the base.

Li Wen sighed on the opposite side of the shuttle, shaking her head.

The dome was solid stone, and through the gate, he saw the docks for the Military Police's slipships sprawled out below. At the center of the massive indoor lake was an island covered in stones with a single silvered building. It stuck out in Alex's mind because it didn't belong.

Erik buried his head in his hands beside him, and Alex placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It's going to be okay," Alex said.

"It might be," Erik whispered through his fingers. "But that doesn't change the fact that this is all wrong. If Commander Milton finds out what I'm doing, it'll be more than me who's in trouble. You guys are strong, but he's—"

"A commander," Alex said, thinking back to an old man on a jungle island. "We'll have to be careful, but we were already going to be that."

"Best to avoid him entirely," Erik said. "He's normally in his office."

"A hands-off person, then?" Alex asked.

"Sometimes, even most of the time," Erik said, taking his hands away from his face and looking across the shuttle to Erin and Wen. "But yesterday, I saw him twice, and it's giving me a bad feeling. I can't help but feel like it's a case of bad luck."

"We'll just have to keep an eye out for him," Alex said, patting Erik's shoulder. "It's not like he has eyes everywhere. If we play it smart, we'll be in and out before he even notices."

Unless the voice was the commander, which was a possibility that Alex hadn't considered. The voice's threat didn't make sense with that option. If the voice knew where they were and had command of a base like Tartarus, it would have been able to mobilize a massive fleet of ships waiting for them out in the nightsea. There would have been no need for a warning.

That didn't mean it wasn't all a trap, but at least he could be sure that the voice wasn't the commander.

"I hadn't even seen him before yesterday, though—not that close," Erik whispered. "That's what's bothering me the most. I only saw him when they were swearing us greens in."

Alex knew a few military guys back in college who would tell him that the best thing to do around commanding officers was to stay entirely unnoticed. The best place to be on their radar was not to be there at all. He could understand how being near one would spook Erik, especially if he was already keeping a low profile.

"But he knew my name. He knew me," Erik said. "That's what's eating at me."

"Maybe that's just his personality," Alex said. "He might make it a habit to know the names and faces of his soldiers so that he can get along with them better."

"Maybe." Erik sighed.

"At base!" the pilot yelled as the shuttle turned into the highest docks.

They pulled into the air docks, massive metal triangular towers that lined the waters on the far side of the dome. Several ships were already in place on the docks, massive slipships made out of metal that reminded Alex of cruisers and battleships from Earth. Most still held large flat decks for the crews to move around, but some had turrets and cannons built into the ship's side.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

A bell on the ship rang as they came in for a landing. Alex braced himself against his seat, grabbing hold of the bars built into the ship's side for precisely that purpose.

Hrrm.

The shuttle's lodestones whined as it docked, its side swinging long as it came in for a landing. Alex noted that they weren't the only shuttles in the docks. Several shuttles took off down the line of various ships that lined the top rows.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Clunk. Ding. Ding.

The ship settled onto the docks, and the pilot rang a bell to signal them to get off. Erik led the way to the side ladder. Alex, Erin, and Wen followed, each taking their turn to climb down to avoid raising suspicions. Alex was sure he could have jumped it, but it would have defeated the purpose of the disguise.

They all needed to lay low and blend in.

Erik paused as they walked away from the ship, looking up and down the docks toward the several tunnel entrances on the far side. Alex noticed that very few soldiers were running around the base so early in the morning. They were likely a skeleton crew for night duty. All along the metal docks, there were about twenty-twenty ships in total, but most were unmanned and inactive.

They rushed down the docks together toward the nearest tunnel that led deeper into the base.

"Where are we going, anyway?" Erik asked. "You needed to be at the base, but where at the base are we supposed to go?"

"I—"Alex paused, thinking back to the figure shrouded in shadows.

It hadn't told them where in the base it was. In fact, it hadn't told them anything beyond the fact that it waited for them in the base. He had no idea what he was looking for inside unless the figure showed up to give him directions.

"Don't tell me," Erin said, nudging Alex with her elbow.

"Don't worry," Alex said, shaking his head. "Just give me a moment."

He opened his gate.

Electric crackles of energy shot out from his heart as he embraced the flow of power coursing through his arms. It touched all the way from his chest to the tips of his fingers and toes, running in shocking gasps as he fell into the blue current. He took in a deep breath as he settled into his curse's power, opening his eyes to see the world around him through an electric field.

He could vaguely see the magnetic fields flowing through almost all objects. Even living things gave off a little glow in his mind as a concentration of blue dots, though the person's will obscured him from looking too close.

More importantly, his sense allowed him to see beyond the metal walls around him. It was like he was looking at an X-ray map of the base. He could see the tunnels below him by about two floors and through the vents above at the top of the hangar.

"This place is big," Alex whispered, realizing that he could still vaguely sense the massive network of metal tunnels below.

"The largest base in the two sectors," Erik said. "Please tell me that you know where we're supposed to go."

"Give me a minute," Alex said.

Something about the area around him was off. While his senses revealed the various corridors below him and the people walking through them, there was a sort of static that crisscrossed everything. Lines of power stretched back and forth throughout each of the corridors and even through the docks. It was like thin lines of web sowed by a spider that people just passed through without even noticing.

"What is this," Alex said, reaching out and touching one of the nearby lines.

The hangar disappeared around him the moment he touched the web. He stood again in the darkness of the creatu're realm, with the shadowy creature hiding outside the small pinprick of light he stood in. Alex clenched his fist. Yet another forced trip, but it didn't change the fact that he needed information.

"Lost, but so close to the goal," the creature said as it opened its maw with a toothy smile that gleamed in the dark. "Are you ready to come into my lair?"

"Once I know where your lair is," Alex said.

"Here, let me show you."

The creature's claw shot out from the darkness, grasping hold of Alex's head. A woman screamed in his mind. A child cried. A man yelled. In the next image, an image appeared. A metal building out on an open lake. Thick still doors that led into darkness. The entrance of the monster's lair.

----------------------------------------

"Hey! Hey, you four!" a man yelled behind Erik, and Erik's stomach dropped to his toes.

Erick turned and saw a petty officer running toward them, his hat and jacket, as the man raised a hand to point at them. Erik gulped down the lump in his throat as he turned to face the petty officer. It was too late to run, and whatever Alex was doing had him frozen in place.

"Act natural." Erin stepped in beside Erik as Wen moved to block Alex from sight.

"Yes, sir." Erik saluted, not needing to be told twice.

"What are you four doing mucking about on my hangar?" The petty officer leaned forward as he approached Erik, who stood at the front of the group now. "We're not paying you lot to laze about."

His entire uniform would be a disgrace to an officer. His hat was tilted to the side, and his jacket was open. Two pieces of a long, thick mustache stuck out from the side of his face like the whiskers of a mouse, and his narrow nose made the image stick in Erik's mind.

However, Erik didn't recognize him. They probably worked different shifts, so they had never interacted before. That meant, as long as Eric kept his cool, he should be able to get them all to the door and out of sight before the petty officer grew suspicious.

"Sorry, sir!" Erik said, continuing his salute. "I was just showing the greens around the hangar. It is their first duty!"

"This lot?" The petty officer looked over the other three and grinned. "We don't have nearly enough women in our ranks. It's a pleasure to see two such specimens of the fairer sex among us."

He immediately approached Erin, rubbing his hands together and smiling.

"Happy to be a part of the team, sir," Erin said, not missing a step of her salute.

"I'm just getting off my shift." The petty officer smiled. "If you ever find that our free time coincides, I know some excellent places to eat. You just have to say the word, and I will be there."

"Sir, I'm sure you know that there is no fraternization between the ranks," Erik said, still keeping his salute. "I mean, one with your rank knows the rules more so than anyone else."

"Jerk," the petty officer hissed at Erik, but Erik didn't budge. "You even have two of them!"

The rules for officers were clear. While there could be some exceptions, officers and rank-and-file like himself were in two separate leagues. The ranks were kept separate for a good reason: to keep out the problems of favoritism in promotions, though Erik was sure that secrets scraped by.

However, all of that was far away from the current situation.

"Someone such as yourself has to be a beacon for us common men," Erik said. "Only by your example do we know what a true soldier of the Military Police is! A servant of the Empyrean."

That got him. The man's scowl turned into a smile as red spread through his face. Eric had to bite back the bile that rose in his throat when he said the words. Whoever the man was, Eric would be better off if they never met again.

"You're right about that, at least." The man huffed, walking past them and toward the shuttles. "Get out of my hanger. I need to go home and eat."

Erik turned and grabbed Alex by the hand, both he and Wen leading him away from the docks as Erin followed. Their first point had been passed. Now, they just needed to get through the base before someone caught on that three of them didn't belong. However, Eric didn't have much hope.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."