THEN
“What are we doing here?” Jake looked up at sign on the building’s stark, dirty white walls. “We’re looking for records?”
“I am looking for records. You decided to follow along despite my wishes,” Detective Ordonez said.
“Might be dangerous in there,” Jake shrugged.
“The clerk recorder’s office has been cleared and reclaimed. It’s not a spawn place or encounter… whatever.”
“Encounter Challenge, but sometimes they turn into Spawn Points.”
Detective Ordonez made a disgruntled noise in her throat. It sounded like a growl to Jake.
“Right, keeping my mouth shut… except, just cause its back to a normal building doesn’t mean monsters can’t go in there. Lots of dark corners they can hide in. I’ve been in there a few times. Those stacks are spooky, like a horror movie. Especially if you’re in there alone. Your steps just echo and the lights are on sensors, so they sort of follow where you walk and if you stop moving for long enough…” Jake shuddered.
“Not too late to turn around. In case you forgot there isn’t any power in there.”
Jake held up his lantern. “Never leave home without this.”
Detective Ordonez sighed.
Sunlight bathed the front lobby thanks to the large windows, which had somehow miraculously remained intact through the spires’ apocalypse.
They were in the last weeks of summer, so the glare of the sun’s light made wearing tactical vests uncomfortable. Especially with both front and back plates inserted. Even so, they were reluctant to step deeper into the cool, darkness of the building’s interior. The light of the sun, harsh as it was signified safety. The monsters didn’t attack them during the day.
They lit their lanterns as they entered the areas that the outside light couldn’t reach.
“Jake.” Detective Ordonez drew her Glock from its holster.
“What? Oh, right.” Jake did the same with one of his smartphones. “It’s the shield spell. I figure I can be the meatshield, while you shoot.”
“Huh?”
“I mean I’ll tank… er, block for you.”
“Like a lineman?”
“Uh, yeah, totally like that.”
“That means you’re in front.”
“Um, sure. Where are we going?”
“I need to check birth records first. Then property records.”
Jake stood still.
“I thought you’ve been here before.”
“Just a few times. I don’t remember where any of that stuff you just mentioned is.”
Detective Ordonez ground her teeth. She shoved Jake down the hallway. Or rather, she tried. He barely budged. “Just start walking I’ll tell you where to go.”
“Did you hear that?”
“The only thing I can hear is your breathing.” Detective Ordonez snapped.
“Maybe we should’ve brought Cal and Bennett along.”
“Just shut up.”
They had parted ways last night after the trail from the mauler’s massacre of the Asian gangbangers went cold. Besides, Detective Ordonez didn’t want Cruces to get a look at the information she was after. She wanted to see it for herself first. Control the narrative. She didn’t like what Cruces had been getting at, but she couldn’t outright deny what he was suggesting. Best case scenario she’d find information that’d clear that particular worry.
The detective was deep into a file cabinet. It was extremely dusty. Who knew when the last time human hands had touched the files? Four years at a minimum since the spires appeared. Probably even longer.
“Good thing they kept the paper as back ups,” Jake said.
Detective Ordonez ignored him.
She found the birth certificate she was looking for, which led her to another file. This in turn led her to another file with an address.
Less than an hour after they had entered the clerk recorder’s building they were back out in the dry, oppressive heat of the sun.
“Okay, now what? You haven’t mentioned what we’re after,” Jake said.
Detective Ordonez debated sending him away. Except, he was a big man. A useful shield to stand behind if she was being honest.
“Just following a hunch. We’re going to Midtown.”
----------------------------------------
The gremlin alpha roared.
“Hold your fire! You’re up.”
Flo grunted and glowered, but she jumped over the railing. She cleared the entire floor seating area and landed on the court. The glossy floor broke under her feet.
“C’mon you stupid bitch!” Flo’s eyes lit with an eager fire. She never showed this to anyone else. It was only when she was fighting and killing that she allowed it to emerge. The flame within her smoldered and hungered. It demanded to be be fed and opportunities like the monsters before her had grown rarer of late.
She wasn’t going to waste this opportunity.
The human-sized gremlins surrounding the much larger alpha came at her all at once.
They moved in slow motion to her eyes.
Flo speared one through the chest with her hand. She swept it off her arm with contemptuous ease to knock the gremlins on her right like bowling pins.
A gremlin on her left slashed down at her face.
She let if come within inches before she dipped her head to the left and under. She broke its back with an elbow.
The gremlins were mindless. An intelligent being would reconsider when realizing how outclassed they were. Instead they attacked with redoubled fury.
Flo caved one’s ugly face in with a punch. She grabbed an other's wrist and braced her other hand on its shoulder. She pulled it with the same ease as pulling a wing off a roasted chicken.
A smirk crossed her blood-stained face as she beat the rest of the gremlins to death with the arm.
Flo spun around and the threw the arm.
It caught the charging gremlin alpha in the face. The monster ignored it. Didn’t even break its loping stride.
The gremlin alpha was faster than the human-sized gremlins despite its greater size and mass.
Flo slipped on the blood-slicked basketball court.
The monster plowed into her.
Her diminutive form went tumbling past half court and straight into the base of the hoop. The metal structure crumpled and broke.
Men and women armed with a mixture of guns and bows watched with concern from above. They looked to their leader.
“Hold your fire.”
Flo emerged from the tangle of the hoop with a maniacal smile on her face. If it was concerning for the people watching through binoculars they would never say. She was vital to their goals of reclaiming the city, piece by piece, from the monsters.
She grabbed the remains of the hoop and swung it with her best impression of swinging for the fences. She cracked the gremlin alpha with the hoop and backboard and sent it flying into the stands.
Flo jumped up after the gremlin alpha and brought the broken remains of the basketball hoop down in an overhead smash. The sound it made was like a car crash that echoed through the empty, cavernous arena.
She brought the hoop up and slammed it back down.
This time the gremlin alpha caught it with both of its massive hands.
Flo grit her teeth as she pulled on the hoop. It didn’t budge.
The gremlin alpha lifted the hoop. Flo went with it.
She was super strong, but her mass wasn’t anywhere close to proportionate to that strength. She relinquished her grip and pushed herself off to land back on the court.
The gremlin alpha threw the hoop’s remains and forced Flo to jump over it.
The monster scattered seats as it burst out of the stands and rushed at the much smaller girl.
Flo swiped at the huge monster. Its tough skin was no match for her nails. She gouged chunks of flesh with every strike. It grew desperate as she easily dodged all of its attacks.
An opening appeared.
Flo speared her hand all the way up to her elbow into the gremlin alpha’s throat.
She shoved its face roughly back with her free hand as she pulled her arm out with a squelching sound.
The monster gurgled as its blood poured out of the hole in its throat.
Flo stared at it.
She appeared outwardly contemptuous, but inwardly the fire burned and threatened to explode.
Take it. Make its strength yours. You need every scrap of power. Be the avenger. Your family demands it.
Flo silenced the inner voice. This time.
It was a close thing. She had failed more often lately.
Loud cheers rained down on her, but she didn’t hear them. A loud chime had sounded in her ears. She was lost to the system’s message. Lost to what the spires had done to her.
“Thank god she’s on our side. Send a message to the interim governor.”
“Yes sir. What do you want it to say?”
“Golden 1 Center spawn point cleared. Reclaimed for the great state of California.”
----------------------------------------
“That hunch of yours working? Cause I’m confused. Why are we looking at a bunch of messed up houses?”
Detective Ordonez had stopped listening to whatever Jake was saying a while back. She focused on the scene in front of her. The past unfolded in front her as she focused with the strange, impossible abilities that the spires had given her. The handful of abilities, Skills, that her Detective class granted her combined to reveal what the battle damaged neighborhood street hid.
A battered car lay on its side. Its front end was crumpled. Oil stained a wide circle of asphalt beneath it.
The detective saw, knew that the car, powerless and driverless, had somehow been crashed right into a gremlin alpha.
She stepped over a broken light pole. She saw the path it took through the air after the monster had ripped it from the ground and flung it at a target in the distance. Its height and arc revealed that the target was man-sized, shorter than the average.
Her eyes were drawn to the row of homes. Tall and narrow with a small space in between marked by a wooden fence. She saw the homes as they once were. She saw them as they were now. Lived in, but well-maintained with love and care by their owners. Shattered and broken, filled with detritus of absence and the touch violence.
Several of the homes had caved in front sections with a distinct outline. She saw the monster being shoved forcefully into the homes. Wood snapped, glass shattered. The noise startled the detective, until she realized that it had happened a long time ago.
Detective Ordonez blinked as if coming out of a trance. She found herself standing in front of a home.
“Um… is that it?”
She looked at Jake as if realizing he was there for the first time.
“Are you okay, boss? You’re not scowling at me and it’s kind of freaking me out. That and the fact that you were randomly walking up and down this street completely ignoring everything I said for like the last thirty minutes.”
“Gates…”
“Shutting up. Got it.”
Detective Ordonez pulled out her notepad and found the address that she had plucked out of the county’s records. Property taxes from just before the spires ruined the world showed that one Franklin Browning had paid it. Ownership records had it under the names of Franklin and his wife, Eleanor. The Browning’s had three children. Florence, Floyd and Frederick.
Her age lined up, but what about the rest of her family? As far as the detective knew she was living alone.
The entire front of the home was crushed. There was no way inside.
The detective carefully picked her way through the rubble in the home’s front yard as she made her way to the right side. A large chunk of the next door home had been collapsed to lay against the side of the Browning’s. The door to the basement was open. The debris had been blocking it, but judging by the marks on the ground they’d been pushed away.
“From the inside,” Detective Ordonez whispered.
“Great, more creepy dark places.” Jake fumbled at the unlit lantern at his belt.
Detective Ordonez left her lantern untouched. Her steps were sure as she descended the steps into the dark basement.
“Wait!” Jake struggled to lit his lantern. He shined the light after the detective even though she took no notice.
The basement was surprisingly clean, aside from the dust. Even though it was exposed to the outside there were no signs of any disturbances. Animal or monster, Detective Ordonez knew that nothing had been inside for a long time. It didn’t fit.
The past was obscured even to her inexplicable sight. As if something stronger overrode her skills. As if the marks left by the past were too much to comprehend.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“What’re we looking for… again?”
Jake’s voice broke Detective Ordonez’s trance. She blinked in the light from the lantern. The shadows that surrounded them were impenetrable once more. She suddenly felt exhausted.
“Do me a favor, Gates. Check out the inside of the house. I need a second.”
“Uh… sure.”
Jake reluctantly climbed up the basement steps. He was relieved when the lantern light revealed that the entrance into the house was crushed in.
“Sorry, boss. Looks like that damage from the outside is blocking the way.”
“We’ll try the back,” Detective Ordonez said.
They had to circle around the left side of the home to reach the backyard and enter.
The family pictures displayed all over the interior confirmed at least one thing for the detective.
“Hey, that’s Flo. Was this her house? Why are we here?”
Detective Ordonez realized that it was a mistake to bring Jake along. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut. She mulled over what to tell him to keep him quiet about their off the books investigation.
“I’m worried about Flo.” She couldn’t tell Jake the whole truth. He wouldn’t be able to keep cool around Flo. “She’s been unreliable lately.”
“You’re talking about when she ran off the other night? Yeah that was messed up, but maybe she was stressing out about the op at the Golden 1 today.”
Detective Ordonez seized the opening Jake unwittingly gave her.
“You might be right, but I can’t have unprofessional behavior on my task force.”
“So, you wanted to talk to Flo’s parents to see what was up.” Jake scratched at his scraggly beard. “They must’ve moved somewhere else after what happened here.”
Detective Ordonez had some ideas on where to proceed next. She resolved to keep Jake out of it.
“Not a word to Flo. For all her power, she’s still a teenage girl.”
Jake nodded. “Yeah, they can be moody and unreasonable. Don’t worry, boss. I’ll keep my mouth shut and I won’t act all awkward around her.”
“I’m counting on you.” Detective Ordonez scowl was hidden by the darkness of the interior. She had zero faith in Jake’s ability to do what he said. It was a good thing that Flo was off for the night’s investigation with Cruces.
“Where to next, boss?”
“You’re free for the rest of the day. I suggest getting a couple of hours of sleep. We have a long night ahead of us.”
“What about you?”
“I’m going back to the station. Got some work to do.” There was a big battle on the Browning’s street. So much damage and devastation. Her gut was telling her that it was significant. It wasn’t her Skills. No, definitely not what the spires’ had forced on her.
They didn’t notice the eyes on them from across the street, inside a steel-barred window on a second floor.
----------------------------------------
“Where’s Flo?” A scowl crossed Cal’s face when he realized that the teen was missing.
“She’s off tonight,” Detective Ordonez said.
“Why?”
“It’s none of your concern.”
“She gets a break cause she took out a gremlin alpha earlier today,” Jake said.
Cal didn’t need superior hearing to catch the detective grinding her teeth.
“Oh yeah, that sounds cool,” Cal smiled. “Why don’t you tell me all about it?”
Jake obliged. He was oblivious to the detective’s displeasure. The young Techmage was indeed terrible at adhering to the tenets of operational security. If it was up to Detective Ordonez, he’d be back behind a desk certainly not on her task force. She could only stew while Jake excitedly regaled Cal with the tale of their successful effort to retake the basketball arena and Flo’s crucial part in it.
They were tracking reports of a mauler attack in the southeastern reaches of the city’s reclaimed territory. Things had quieted down on the mauler front after that last massacre of gangbangers. This particular report was about sounds of violence in a scrap yard.
They split up into pairs to cover the yard quicker. Cal didn’t detect any monsters, so he took the opportunity to grill the detective on their concerns with Flo. While Jake and Bennett went one way, Cal and the detective went the other.
“Where’s your intern?”
“Omar’s sidelined for now. Not going to risk his life in the event that we find the mauler again.” Cal stared at Detective Ordonez.
“Why are you looking at me like I’ve got a present behind my back, Cruces?”
“Because I can tell that you found something on our little problem.”
“She’s a girl, not a problem.”
“She’s got super human strength and she’s carrying a lot of hatred inside.”
Detective Ordonez’s eyes snapped to Cal’s. “And how do you know that?”
“I— I just know. It’s in her eyes when she looks at me. Or when she thinks no one is looking at her.”
“Did you ever stop to think that she might have a good reason for that?”
Cal frowned. “I have no idea why she hates me so much.”
“It took me all day to find enough pieces to put a picture together,” Detective Ordonez said. “Do you remember about a year, year and a half back when you and your brother were helping with that spawn point?”
“Totally saved your government.”
Detective Ordonez nodded. “The two of you ended up in Midtown taking on a couple of those big monsters.”
“Gremlin alphas.”
“You weren’t too concerned about collateral damage. I don’t know if it was you or your brother, but you were throwing cars around. Throwing the monsters around. Into houses,” Detective Ordonez’s voice went flat.
“We were assured that the whole area was empty.” Cal didn’t like where this was going. “We made sure to ask.”
“Does that really matter to the people in those houses?”
“So, you’re suggesting that Flo was in one?”
“The Browning family owned a house that you and your brother demolished in your fight with monsters. That much I’m certain of.”
“That’s a pretty complete picture in just a couple of days. I’m impressed. How’d you pull that off?” Cal felt a little vindictive. He knew that the detective wasn’t buying in to the changes the spires had wrought. That she feared what her class and skills meant for her humanity. He’d feel bad about later. “Those Detective Skills really upped your game, huh?” He said it with as much sincerity as he could manage.
Detective Ordonez’s steely gaze betrayed nothing of what she thought. “Admittedly, this doesn’t explain all of Flo’s behavior.”
“No, it really doesn’t. You need to find out what happened to the Browning family.”
“I intend to.”
The rest of their search was completed in silence. Cal’s thoughts roiled. Was it possible that he had hurt innocent people? Even if it was an accident there was no excuse. He eyed the detective. She didn’t like him, that was obvious enough. Could her trust her to be impartial? No, that would be foolish. He needed to pursue an investigation of his own. At least the detective had given him a place to start.
“You guys find anything?”
Jake and Bennett met Cal and Detective Ordonez.
“No,” Detective Ordonez said.
“Pick up anything, Bennett?” Cal said.
Bennett shook his head. “I detected nothing of note.”
“False alarm. That’s good right?” Jake grinned. “The mauler didn’t get anyone tonight.”
“As far as we know,” Detective Ordonez said. “And there is a lot that we don’t.”
----------------------------------------
A WHILE AGO
The pretty young woman banged on the house door. “Hey! Open up! I know you’re in there!”
An older gentleman opened the door. “It’s only Tuesday.”
“I come when I decide.” She gave him a mirthless smile. “You have my payment?”
“We agreed on Fridays.”
“Mr. Khan, we didn’t agree on anything. I decided Friday was collection day.” She held up her hand and conjured a small ball of fire in her palm. “You don’t want another demonstration of what might happen to your precious home, do you? It’d be a shame if you had to move into a smaller place.”
“This is our home.”
“And I pledge to continue doing my best out there against the monsters to help you and your family keep it. After all, it’s the sheep dog’s duty to protect the sheep.”
“Alright. It’ll just take a few minutes to get the supplies together. After all, I wasn’t expecting you until Friday.”
“Mind the tone, Mr. Khan. I’m being very patient with you, but that’s not unlimited. You have three minutes or my hand might slip.” She waved the small ball of fire next to the door frame in a vaguely threatening manner.
The man tried to shut the door, but the young woman stopped him. He fumed, but relented and went back into the house.
A pair of children peeked from the top of the stairs. The young woman smirked and gave them a small wave.
The man appeared with a bag two minutes and forty-five seconds later. The young woman was counting down.
“Cutting it close.” The young woman checked the contents of the bag. “Pleasure doing business with you. See you next week.” She smiled brightly and snuffed out the ball of fire in her palm.
The young woman had a hop in her step as she went to her next collection stop.
Flo watched her from a nearby rooftop. Her enhanced hearing meant that she had caught the entire conversation. She didn’t know the young woman’s name, just heard some troubling rumors. It seemed that they were right. She decided to follow the woman. Give her some more rope to hang herself.
Once the young woman was done with her extortion rounds, Flo would jump in and give her the warning. Then she’d have to figure out how to return the supplies to the innocent people.
Flo made it to the police station just in time for the task force meeting. Returning the supplies had taken longer than expected. It was tough figuring out which supplies belonged to which households, plus she had to give them back without being spotted.
She leapt down from the roof top and landed with barely a sound right behind that gigantic nerd.
“Jesus!” Jake jumped when he finally noticed that she was there. “How’d you do that?”
Flo frowned. He was such a lame-ass. She glared up at him.
The smile was still plastered on his stupid, fat face. “So, we’re going to go meet the boss at the crime scene.”
“What crime scene?” Flo’s heart jumped.
“This dude on our spec-ops. Uh…” Jake consulted a small notepad, “Taylor Levinson, was a Warrior. The boss thinks it might be the Midtown Mauler.”
“How is she sure? I thought she was having a hard time telling the difference between the mauler’s kills and monster kills?”
Jake shrugged. “Something about starting to see a pattern emerging. I have no idea, but we should probably hurry.”
“Fine, let’s go then and I’m not slowing down for you.” Flo turned to go.
“Ah,” Jake waved his notepad in her face, “but how are you going to know where to go. I have the addr—”
Flo snatched the notepad out of Jake’s hand. It took him a second to realize what had just happened.
“Soooo fast,” Jake said with undisguised awe.
Flo glanced at the notes. “That’s a half mile from here. Are we taking a car?”
“Sorry, nothing available. We’re going to have to go the old-fashioned way.”
“Bikes?”
“Uh… nothing available.”
Flo shook her head. “Ridiculous. Fine. I guess I won’t go too fast, so you can keep up.”
“Much appreciated,” Jake beamed. “But don’t worry too much. I’ve been doing a lot of cardio.”
----------------------------------------
NOW
The small stealth team timed their departure to coincide with the other team’s open assault to claim the city section adjacent to section 115.
Cal felt as if he had one eye and one ear covered behind the telepathic sphere he’d constructed to protect his mind. It was a strange and uncomfortable feeling to be surrounded by silence. He had forgotten what it was like to not have his telepathy passively picking up stray emotions, thoughts and sensations.
He led the team as they moved quickly through silent and empty streets. The metallic surfaces were mostly clean aside from a fine layer of dust. It was an eerie experience. Like how he imagined exploring an empty science fiction-style starship. Of course an alien city on an alien world was probably sufficiently sci-fi enough to cross it off the list.
He reined in the wonder. They were on a deadly serious Quest, Task for the Threnosh. They had all gotten the chime right before they had departed. Nice of the spires to give them a heads up that the birthing creche was significant. In his experience anything that got an official Quest proved to be important in some way.
It was good and bad. Meant they weren’t wasting time, but also probably meant there was going to be a challenge to overcome when they got there.
The team reached a large expanse of open space. It was about the size of two football fields and was framed by a mixture of tall and short buildings.
Cal subvocalized a text message to Unseen.
Can you get across and see if you can spot eyes or ambushes?
Acknowledged. The reply came back immediately.
Unseen’s form distorted and vanished.
What do you guys think? Cal sent to the rest of his team.
The latest scan indicated that our route is clear of corrupted presence. PJ15
Scans have been unreliable. Adahn.
We can cross the distance quickly. Adahn can be carried by Honor or PJ15. Brightstrike.
Unseen will discover if there are hidden hostiles. PJ15
Cal kept his eyes on the open space. He tried to spot Unseen, but failed. He fought the temptation to drop his telepathic shield to search his surroundings for hidden monsters.
I have crossed the distance. Scanner indicates that there are no hostiles. You are clear to proceed. Unseen
It would be so much easier if they could trust their instruments. Cal took a deep breath and signaled his team. He gripped his recoilless rifle and sprinted out into the open space.
Spread out. PJ15, you grab Adahn if there’s trouble.
Acknowledged. PJ15.
Cal expected corrupted to start pouring out of the streets and buildings at any second. He was pleasantly surprised when his expectation wasn’t met. They made it to the other side without incident.
The space in front of Cal rippled to reveal Unseen.
Once again Cal took the lead as the team fell in formation behind him.
He expected to get attacked every step of the way. The paranoia wasn’t doing him any good. The tension, the anxiety was making him waste precious energy.
They turned into a narrow alley that led to a dead end. It was a slightly dusty metallic wall that belonged to a building that rose thirty meters.
Cal double-checked the map projected in his face-plate. They were still on the right track.
We’re going up and over.
The team, except for PJ15, attached magnetic clamps to their gloves and boots. They climbed quickly enough, but PJ15 outpaced them all. Their power armor easily crawled up the wall like an insect.
They reached the top of the building and headed down the other side. From now on they’d be heading further down. Deeper into the city. Without power the lights weren’t on and the sun’s light didn’t quite penetrate through the taller buildings and higher levels.
The birthing creche facility was enormous. It wasn’t merely mega-sized, you could say it was giga-sized. From what Cal understood. The creche was separated into sections for different clans, orders and even job roles. The scale of it boggled his mind. He couldn’t put it into words.
It would’ve taken his small team much too long to search the entire thing. Fortunately, they knew where to go and the control center of the facility was a reasonable size.
Why are the lights on? Cal belatedly realized that there was a reason he could see the creche facility. It was the only thing in the entire area that was lit up.
It appears to be functional. Adahn.
Shall I scout ahead? Unseen.
Negative. There are probably hostiles all over this place. Not the time to split the party. Cal moved forward. They had no choice. They had to get inside to find out exactly what was going on.
The birthing creches were the most disturbing thing to date that Cal had seen on the Threnosh world. Minus Zalthyss eating two of his fingers.
The individual birthing pods resembled metallic cocoons. They were tightly packed and hung from a vine-like tube structure that went up to the ceiling somewhere out of sight. A single birthing creche might contain a single section of a vertical stalk or it could be comprised of multiple stalks. According to the specs the facility rose up five hundred meters. The amount of Threnosh that they could birth was staggering.
Cal didn’t want to consider the possibility that this structure had been turned to produce the corrupted. If that was the case then the numbers they had already faced was only a fraction of what Orchestral Meridian might be hiding.
Adahn, are these things functional?
Adahn carefully walked toward a set of pods and held a hand over them. They are.
Can you tell what’s inside?
I can only determine that the machinery is functioning within expected parameters.
Cal grimaced. I suppose that means we need still need to get to the control center.
Honor, I am concerned that we have not encountered any guardians. Unseen.
I want you to go invisible. Stay in range for an emergency data transfer. Cal ordered Unseen. Once you get the information head straight for the base camp. Whatever happens we need to let the others know that this place is operational.
Acknowledged. Unseen vanished from sight.
The rest of us continue to the control center.
Cal followed the map. It led them straight to their destination. The oppressive feeling grew stronger with every step. He could feel it pushing in on his telepathic shield. Part of him was screaming to turn back and run as fast he could. To leave everything and everyone behind without looking back. He told himself to shut up.
The doorway to the control center had something carved across the top. It was out of place. Threnosh signage was clear and clean. This was done by hand. Two words.
Mother Madrigal
Cal frowned. What does that read to you guys?
I do not know the words. PJ15
Adahn and Brightstrike concurred.
It didn’t make sense on several levels. Again, Cal was tempted to open a tiny gap in his telepathic shield to reach out and see what he felt lurking around him.
Adahn with me. Brightstrike and PJ15 be on guard.
Cal stowed his rifle in its magnetic holder on the back of his armor and drew his ax. He may not have had access to his telepathy and telekinesis, but he still had his super strength.
At his signal Adahn opened the door. The way looked clear, so Cal forged ahead.
The door slid shut behind them and the voice in Cal’s head screamed louder. There was nothing in sight. Just terminals and consoles, which were lit and active when they shouldn’t have been.
“Alright, Adahn. Get that data we need and make it quick. There’s something wrong with this place,” Cal said.
“I concur.” Adahn hurried to the main control console and dived into the strange digital world only they could see.