Following a schematic map that Luna had provided, as well as the hovering mosquito-drone, the four companions entered the main complex of the Fortress Belzond not through the main doors but through a side stairwell that opened up into a wide corridor illuminated by clear white light strips. Some of the areas closest to the side access stairwell showed signs of being cleaned, although the group did not encounter any more of Luna’s drones. As they penetrated deeper into the fortification, the group found that the first floor up from the hangars sported several wide doors, protected by several sets of large, complex mechanical locks and tattered safety seals still faintly bearing the mountain and spears of the Ashin-Vetel.
“What are these rooms?” Eric asked as they passed another of the sealed doors, curiously looking for a plaque or a sign to give a hint of the room’s purpose.
[These are the Fortress’ manufacturing and fabricating halls Commander,] Luna’s voice abruptly came from the back of their drone escort, startling them all. [Much of the equipment inside was too big to quickly dismantle and carry away, so the last Commander ordered the doors locked and sealed.]
“Can they still be made operable?” Cid asked, huffing slightly with the unaccustomed exertion he was being forced to undertake.
[There is a high chance that at least one of the rooms can be returned to some level of operation Science Chief Arth-Veda,] Luna answered back just as the group began ascending a wider set of stairs leading up onto the Fortress’s second floor. [Once the threat above us is neutralized and the Fortress claimed, I will direct my drones to ascertain the condition of the halls.]
“Perhaps they can find me a smaller room for a workshop?” Cid pressed, his lowered vice echoing a bit as they cautiously marched up the stairs.
[I shall try to find a suitable place for…]
“Shhh!” Serra interrupted; her face unreadable in the dim light.
Eric, marching slightly ahead of them all, smiled into the dusty darkness.
In contrast to the first floor the second level and all the rest of the floors above it were taken up mostly by empty, lifeless corridors and dark stairwells leading up through the central spire of the vast complex that made up the Fortress Belzond. Whatever had happened to the building, it did not look as if these parts of the Fortress had been abandoned in haste: Everything that could be carried away, everything that was not actually bolted down, had been methodically, painstakingly dismantled and carted off, down to the paneling on the walls. There were no signs of conflict or destruction either, just empty room after empty room, most stripped down to just the bare walls, ceiling and floor, with nothing left to hint at their original use or purpose.
Light strips similar to those found in the Command Level provided the only illumination in most areas, though their System-adjusted eyes made the most of the scant illumination, allowing them all to move through the building with little difficulty. The air in these corridors also smelled stale, dusty, and dry and their passage often stirred up clouds of dust that was thankfully filtered out by the helmets all of them wore.
There were some exceptions of course.
One room near the top of the stairs leading down to the hangars had obviously been some sort of auditorium-type briefing or viewing room, with several wide stages leading down from the large double doors onto a half-circular area with a flat wall towering above it.
Another room was longer than it was wide, occupying nearly half an entire floor, with an oval track going along the walls. In the middle were bare rock floors bearing traces of paint that sectioned much of the area into rectangular fields. It had probably been a physical fitness area and gym.
What was most noticeable about the entire complex was the composition of its walls and floors, which, to the naked eye, appeared to be of some dark, metal-rich rock. At one point Eric placed a gauntleted hand on the smoothened walls, noting the short bands of metallic striations set within the grain.
“It is similar to extra-planetary nickel-iron agglomerations found throughout Union space, sir.” Pig opined, trying to match the visible patterns with the geologic identification data it had stored in its memory.
“Are you saying this Fortress is actually an asteroid?” Eric asked, keeping his voice low.
“That is likely, sir. The logistics and effort to create such an expansive structure as this Fortress may be both prohibitive and improbable based on Union standards, but the fact that Luna and the Obsidian Moon exists should give us a plausible baseline for what the exosapients of this universe are technologically capable of.”
“Hmm,” Eric thought about the matter as they traversed yet another wide corridor. Although the presence of magic and abilities contributed to the perception of this System-universe as a fantastical place, the level of sophistication that Eric had been exposed to so far indicated that the advances in technology that the natives of this universe had achieved were not in any way inferior to that which the Terrans were used to.
“It would be a mistake to underestimate the technological capabilities of the natives.” He stated, looking at everything around him with fresh insight.
“Yes sir,” Pig concurred, sounding astonished at its own conclusions. “It is different but definitely not inferior.”
It was not until they reached the sixth floor up from the hangars that they came upon signs of something else other than themselves having been there. Osar, who had taken point sometime during the climb, had opened a door wider after the leading mosquito-drone had slipped past the gap of the opening. The action disturbed a mound of bones that had been pressed onto the other side of the door, scattering the skeletal debris in a loud, dry clatter that was abruptly accompanied by a high shrill sound.
“Did you just scream?” Serra asked Cid, her voice sounding distant within the confines of her helmet, its burning halo of white ghost-fire giving her a menacing air.
“I did not!” Cid answered quickly. “I was yelling out a warning.”
“Sure sounded like a scream.”
“Must be something wrong with your helmet’s pickups...” Cid mumbled. “I’ll look into fixing that for you once Luna gets me a workshop.”
Eric grinned again inside his own smooth helm, still surprised at how the crafter had managed to make a metal-fronted helmet that still allowed both air and vision to pass through the solid-looking faceplate. The effect was like no other head equipment Eric had worn before: If the side-plates had not intruded at the edges of his vision, Eric could have sworn he wore nothing on his head at all.
They all filed past the scatter of disturbed bones and the discolored section of floor where the beast had probably expired, most of them marveling at the size of the creature and the apparent density of its thick, yellowish bones.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
The corridor beyond the skeleton room spiraled inward, according to the map that Luna had provided, until they arrived at the doorway into the circular room where the aether conduit, and the shardling feeding on its energies, was located. The group gathered at the corridor outside, taking turns looking into the interior, though there was not much inside to actually assess.
In such a big empty room all thoughts of using cover to approach the creature went out the window: There was exactly zero cover to be had.
During her turn Serra peered in and waited a few moments so she could use her Flaw Seeker ability on the creature they had come to take care of as it moved into sight range.
“There’s a central orb, behind that smoke body,” She reported, moving into place beside the doorframe. “Hitting that should get us a reaction.” Eric nodded at Serra’s words before turning to address all his companions.
“You heard her. That orb is our target people.” He began, trying to keep his voice down so as not to alert the creature. “Remember, we need to get that thing away from the main conduit, which we will absolutely not damage whatever the circumstances!” Luna had been very clear about the consequences of doing the conduit any major damage. “There’s fuck-all cover to be had so the flow of engagement will have to be dangerously straightforward.”
Everyone nodded at that, recognizing that such a breadth of space allowed the creature to see, and maybe counteract, whatever the members of the group tried to do even as they rushed forward into engagement range.
Not a very ideal situation if you were the one attacking.
“Osar we’ll need you to get its attention, and keep it,” The Urgan hunter nodded. Eric turned to Serra, the smooth plates of his helmet presenting an unnerving, expressionless surface. “Jakobin, you stay as long-range for as long as you can, try to keep it reacting and off-balance with your attacks, and Cid,” Eric placed a hand on the scientist’s helmet. “Remember, your role is artillery! You come in last so the beast doesn’t fixate on you, and just lob those grenades over. Mind your line of fire and target area, and call out every time you take a shot, ok?”
Cid nodded quickly, his grip tightening on the grenade launcher he carried.
“Everyone make sure you all have your healing potions ready and don’t stint on them: They are there to be used!” Eric gave a deep breath and mentally readied himself. “Lastly: None of you are allowed to die: You feel pressured, call out and get away, the others will back you up. If things go sideways, we WILL retreat, so no sacrificial heroics, hear?”
His companions all nodded and made sounds of assent.
Eric turned to the door and motioned to Osar to move forward.
“You have the most experience battling creatures like this, my friend,” Eric said softly, touching helmets to the big man through force of habit. “You’ll be in charge of giving the signal to retreat if you judge we’re going to be overwhelmed, ok?”
“I have the lead, Jad-Os.” Osar replied firmly.
“Good,” Eric turned back to look at each of his companions in turn. “Think fast, strike hard. We green?”
“Aye, Captain!”
“Roger, sir.”
“We are green.”
“Right! Osar, take the lead!”
The big Urgan walked forward, manifesting his large sword and shield as he stepped past the threshold. He continued marching, taking no care to keep himself quiet. Eric and Serra slipped past the doorway after Osar had gone half a dozen meters inside, Eric going left and Serra right. Because of the size of the room, it seemed the shardling had still not noticed their entrance.
About halfway to the conduit, that situation changed.
Osar raised his sword and banged it loudly on his shield. At the same time, Eric saw a wave of silvery-pink aether blast towards the creature. The shardling stopped in the middle of siphoning free aether from another of the pillar’s glyph arrays, its attention snapping towards the approaching Urgan. Was that some sort of ability that Osar had just used? Eric wondered, even as he tried to be as soundless as possible as he raced along the left-side wall to get into a flanking position.
With shocking speed, the shardling rushed towards Osar, hovering over the floor and clashing its own crystalline glass shards in challenge. Three meters from Osar the beast suddenly halted, sending out two glass spears at Osar’s flanks.
Osar grunted as he took one of the spears on his left-hand shield, shunting the strike away with the clear ring of metal on metal. He batted away the other spear with his oversized sword, shattering it into a thousand glittering shards. Even as the shardling readied new attacks, Eric saw a wave of orange aetheric energy surge toward the creature from the right, and a column of fire erupted out of the floor to indicate that Serra had joined the fray.
With shocking speed, the creature bunched nearly all of its metallic shards underneath its smoke-like body, creating a shield that broke apart the column of fire and sent it harmlessly to the sides. As the flames scattered and dissipated, Osar was suddenly in front of the creature, his sword sweeping horizontally towards the creature’s amorphous center.
The creature barely managed to get a shard up in time, deflecting the Urgan’s blow slightly upward instead of hitting dead center. Osar felt a slight tug of resistance as its blade clipped something more solid within the smoke, but it was over so quickly that he instantly knew he had done no significant damage.
But that had apparently hurt the creature!
Unexpectedly, the shardling let out a brittle, high-pitched cry, while it’s shards wildly slashed at Osar from all angles. The big Urgan swept up his shield and hunkered down, trusting his armor to protect his body as he activated an ability that created a semicircular shield of high-pressure water jets that managed to shunt away most of the strikes. One of the blows made it through however, hitting Osar’s side with a hollow clang that sent the big man tumbling to the side.
Eric halted with his foot braced against the wall, pulling out the pain-lance from his ring and aiming down its wood and crystal length to fire a bolt of hissing, red-white aether at the creature’s center mass.
“Grenade!” Cid bellowed from his position just inside the door, his shout accompanied by the dull thunk of his launcher firing.
The creature intercepted Eric’s pain bolt with a inky cloud-stuff pseudopod, screaming as the energy of the bolt was absorbed into its body. Was that a scream of pain, Eric wondered, even as he stowed away the pain-lance.
Cid’s grenade struck the ground in front of the shardling, spraying the creature with chips of stone and a crackling, blinding wave of electricity. The creature recoiled backwards, many of its glass shards shattering and falling to the ground as another burst of pillar-fire struck it from underneath.
Eric blinked away the afterimages of the energies that had been released, seeing that the attacks had clearly damaged the creature, as it hovered shakily over the cracked floor, nearly half of its shards damaged or destroyed, with black, amorphous cloud-stuff leaking out of great rents torn into its shapeless body. The central orb that Serra had identified as the creature’s weakness was now more clearly visible as more and more of the cloud-stuff dissipated.
Osar attacked again, slashing downward even as the creature recovered enough to block the sword with two of its remaining shards. Jagged splinters shot outward from the point of impact, even as another crystal-metal shard struck Osar’s helmet, sending the Urgan crashing to the ground. Before the creature could follow up, Serra was there, swinging her hammer in short chopping blows that sent the shardling scrambling backward in a shower of broken crystals.
Eric came in low and fast, his sword covered with a sinister violet glow as he struck at one of the creature’s cloudy pseudopods that was poised to strike at Serra. The blade cut through the cloud-stuff, completely severing the arm, and the creature leaped sideways and away, creating some space between it and the annoying flesh bags that had caused it so much harm.
“Grenade!”
The shardling had just come to a halt a few meters from its three attackers when another grenade exploded beside it, enveloping its disorganized frame with icy, freezing aether. The shardling froze in place for a moment, straining against the ice that had formed instantly around it, and breaking free within a few seconds.
Without pause, the injured shardling went into the offensive, striking at the three bunched up attackers that were closest to it. Three quick shards struck at the hammer-wielding woman, sending her reeling away with slashes etched into her armor. Two horizontal slashes battered away the smaller sword-wielder in a spray of blood and armor pieces, and then the shardling was in the air, four of its crystal shards tight around what remained of its diminished cloud-body, ready to dart forward and skewer the armored Urgan that still lay stunned on the floor.
At the apex of the creature’s leap Osar raised his head and extended his shield-covered left arm towards the creature, a wide smile on his face. The creature hesitated for a micro-second in mid-air, torn between attacking and defending, enough for Osar to unleash a blazing bolt of lightning that struck the shardling dead center, blasting it apart with a deafening crash of thunder and shattering crystal.
Got you bitch!
Drained but triumphant, Osar folded his body into a fetal position, trying to shelter as much as he could beneath his shield, as shardling bits fell and clattered all around him.