He walked into the building, silence descending on what was once a relatively noisy gathering, and for good reason at that. It wasn’t often that you saw a Yakubian, let alone one as well known and decorated as former Wing Commander Deemi Broggs. Hell, before his current sighting many people had assumed he died in the line of duty, which made his sudden entrance into a CSS base very surprising indeed. Shocking, even.
Now its not every day that someone returns from the dead, and for good reason. Stealing a soul from a Soul Vault was a monumental task, one only done in the direst of circumstances, and unfortunately, even though the Wing Commander was widely known and respected, it wasn’t considered a worthwhile endeavour to try and steal it back. Fortunately for him, it seemed that there was no need to. He had somehow delivered himself from the jaws of death, much to the amusement and slight chagrin of a certain Air Marshal Moore.
Deemi swaggered up to Moore, a ghost of a smirk barely gracing his lips. The Air Marshall looked him up and down, noting that Deemi had clearly seen better days; however, to be fair, he was in far better condition than he expected. Though he was glad, Moore wasn’t as enthused as he should have been for Deemi’s return. Slight rumours of the Air Marshalls incompetence, along with the Wing Commander refusing multiple promotions, led to some discontent with leadership, which only strained the two men’s relationship. But not by a lot. After all, they were lifelong friends in the habit of mocking one another, and to Moores dismay, Deemi’s triumphant return would only serve as even more ammo to deride him.
Any exasperation he would experience, however, was nothing compared to the good news of his friend coming back alive.
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The two hugged each other in a tight embrace, simply glad to be where they should be. The Marshal was the first to pull away, and after stalling for a few seconds, he decided to break the silence.
“How the fuck are you still alive.”
“Imma be honest with you, I have no fuckin clue how I got out of that.”
“OK but seriously, you were in enemy territory for close to two months. In one of their important information centres, no less. What took you so long? And was it worth it?”
“It’s more than worth it, mate. Trust me on this, what I found is major fucking news.”
“What is it?”
“I think its best if I show you this. Let’s go to a conference room, and once we’re there, I think it’s best if you take a seat.”
The two of them, along with a few other soldiers on base, proceeded to head towards a conference room. Once they were there, Deemi pulled out a small data chip and slid it into the centre of the table. The holographic sequence booted up and displayed a star chart, highlighting twenty different stellar locations. What they were was lost on the Marshall, however he knew that he would soon know their significance. Deemi stood there for a good twenty seconds, seemingly checking if the data was correct, but by this point Moore lost any semblance of patience he had.
“Well, care to tell us what the hell we’re looking at?”
“Stellar coordinates, sir.”
“Stop fucking about Deemi. Everybody here knows what they are, we just want to know why they’re significant. How significant are they, by the way?”
“Very significant, Sir. With this information, we can do a lot of damage, and save a lot of souls in the process.”
“Save…. some souls? You’ve found another Soul Vault?!”
“Not just one, Sir. All of the coordinates you see projected here are Soul Vaults. Not only do I have the locations, I have the security details, number of souls, the owner and the weaknesses of each vault. The gods that own these are bigwigs, including Odin, Quetzalcoatl, Yzzming and more.”
“You do realise this changes everything, right?”
“I do.”