07:44, January 4th, 2135
The elevator door slid smoothly open to reveal Dawn standing with one hip cocked to the side and a grin on her face. She leaned forward and kissed Kayden deeply before wrapping her arms around Elara in a bone-crushing hug.
“Welcome to the family, girl.” She squealed excitedly.
“Wait, how did…” Elara trailed off as she blushed furiously.
“Ali.” Dawn explained as she backed off. “She told us the two of you finally had sex.”
“Dawn, you know it’s more complicated than that.” Kayden admonished her.
“Yeah, yeah I know – Xenocompatibility and everything. You’re crazy about each other though, so it was pretty obvious to the rest of us how this was going to end up.”
Chuckling to himself, Kayden stepped onto the elevator with his two women. The door closed behind and Elara pressed a button to take them back to the surface. As they steadily rose he looked back at Dawn.
“What else did Ali tell you?”
“Oh, everything.” Dawn replied casually. “She’s even got some of the Vrul crewmates working on building those drones. You’ll have the first few in a day or so.”
Thank you Ali. You think of everything. He thought warmly to her.
[“I accept thanks in the form of physical intimacy as well.”] She replied cheekily.
Kayden was about to respond when the elevator suddenly stopped. He furrowed his brow and was about to call out over the radio before a familiar human voice began speaking on their shared channel.
“AJ here. We’ve got a problem.”
“You can say that again.” Kayden replied. “We’re stuck in the elevator underground.”
“It’s not just the elevator. The main power systems for the city just cut out, and by the sounds of it only some of the backups kicked in. We’re lucky that the local communications grids are still working, but there’s no time estimate yet on how long it’ll take to get everything else up and running.”
Kayden’s eyes went wide. “Any chance the planetary defenses are down too?”
“Yeah, they are – defense cannons and energy shields. Why?”
“We need to prioritize getting those back up and running. AJ, this was a cyberattack and any minute now we’re going to start seeing Voidborn ships in orbit.”
“Shit, you’re right.” AJ swore before relaying the message to his wives. “It’s the same tactic they’ve used before. We’ll get the word out to the fleet. Hopefully we’ve got enough ships in orbit to defend against whatever’s coming our way.”
“Once you’re done, get to the Broken Shackle?” Kayden suggested. “You can use our shuttle to pick up Celestia and her scientists while you’re at it. By the time you’re done we’ll be out of here and you can pick us up.”
“You going soft on us?” AJ teased. “Suddenly you care about our well being?”
“I just don’t want you getting killed before the next round of negotiations with the president.” Kayden replied with a grin.
“Yeah, yeah.” AJ chuckled. “You just sit tight for a bit. We’ll call you when we’re in orbit.”
When the line went quiet Dawn spoke again. “I think we can safely assume that the next round of negotiations will be delayed.”
“They’re probably going to move the president and her cabinet to a secure location as soon as they get word of the Voidborn attack. Normally I’d suggest the vault, but…well…” She gestured to their currently stationary elevator.
“Let’s not sit around and wait then.” Kayden said. “I don’t want to be caught down here when the Voidborn show up.”
“We’re still several kilometers underground.” Elara reminded him. “Do you have a plan for getting us out? Even with your enhanced strength and endurance, I don’t think trying to scale the walls will work.”
[“I have an idea.”] Ali offered.
“Go ahead Ali.” Kayden replied out loud for the benefit of the two other women.
[“I have completed an analysis of the blueprints for the vault. The elevator itself is raised and lowered using an antigravity system. However, there is a manual backup in case of power loss – a cable attached to the top of the elevator, offset by a dummy weight. That is why the elevator stopped instead of plummeting back down.”]
“Alright, I see where you’re going with this.” Kayden replied, summoning his nanobot swarm. “Stand back.”
In moments the tiny machines raced to the top of the elevator and ate through a chunk of the ceiling, exposing the smooth metallic walls beyond – ones which were lit at regular intervals by blue maintenance lights. He then formed his swarm into a simple ladder before climbing up and glancing around, finding the cable attached to the middle of the elevator.
As his two women followed him up the ladder he gripped the thick cable tightly with his prosthetic arm, testing its strength. When they reached the top and joined him they gave him a quizzical look – one which he replied to with a grin.
“You’d better hold onto me tightly.” He said, recalling his nanobots before redeploying them to eat through the base of the cable. “This ride is going to go fast.”
Both women wrapped their arms around his waist – Elara on his right and Dawn on his left – before speaking again.
“You’re not seriously doing what I think you-” Elara started, but was cut off as the cable below them snapped from the nanobot’s relentless assault.
As the trio shot upwards, Elara’s terrified scream was matched by Dawn’s excited one. The metallic walls around them blurred into one continuous grey streak as they picked up speed, and below them Kayden heard the distant crash of the falling elevator hitting the bottom floor. When a faint light appeared above them Kayden deployed more of his nanobots, forming them into a sizable clump around the cable above his hand before ordering them to solder themselves into place.
After almost 5 full minutes of rocketing upwards, they came to an abrupt halt at the top. Kayden’s makeshift nanobot stopper clanged against a pulley loudly, causing them all to wince. As they swayed back and forth from the cable Kayden nudged Dawn with his arm and nodded towards the closed elevator door.
“Think you can get us out?”
“Of course.” Dawn said, shifting slightly to lean back against his arm. “Give me a little boost, will you?”
Wrapping his free arm around her waist Kayden used his enhanced strength to toss her across the gap towards the door. His heart dropped as he watched his succubus-girlfriend soar through the air, shifting to her incorporeal form at the last possible moment to pass through the elevator doors. There was a brief pause before Kayden looked down at Elara.
“You doing okay?”
“Yeah, just…hanging here, trying not to think about the 20 kilometer drop below us.” She said, her voice quivering slightly.
“Not a fan of heights?”
“Not really, no.”
“I didn’t know that about you.” He admitted.
“Yes, well…now you do.” She said tersely. “I’d appreciate a distraction right about now.”
Kayden leaned in and kissed her before a grin appeared on his face. “Think about how much shit they’re going to give us for wrecking the elevator that leads to the vault.”
Despite the situation they were in, she cackled at his comment before nudging him in the ribs. Before she could respond though, the door opened to bathe them in warm yellow light from the corridor beyond.
“Well, we haven’t got all day to hang around. Come on then.”
Not wanting to spend any more time suspended over the drop than she absolutely needed to, Elara quickly climbed into Kayden’s arm before nodding to him. He launched her across the gap, causing her to soar through the open door and land in a controlled roll safely in the corridor. When she stood and gave the two of them a thumbs-up, he took a deep breath and leapt through the air.
Without the benefit of someone launching him, he quickly realized he didn’t have enough momentum to safely reach the other side. Instinctively he reached out with both hands, flailing them forward in a desperate attempt to catch the edge of the elevator door. His wide eyes locked onto Dawn’s as she leaned forward through the door to catch him mid-air.
The two of them suddenly stopped falling, with Kayden swinging into the side of the elevator shaft bodily. Dawn grunted with pain as her hands grasped his tightly, and slowly they inched back up to safety. It wasn’t until his head reached the level of the corridor floor that he realized Elara had grabbed onto Dawn’s tail to steady her, pulling them both backwards with all her might.
By the time the three of them collapsed onto the corridor floor they were panting from exertion. To the surprise of the other two Kayden let out a laugh of relief as he laid there, looking at the ceiling.
“Lets…not do that again.”
“Agreed.” Elara said, standing.
“Come on. We’ve got work to do.” Dawn said, rolling over and pushing herself to her feet.
Taking another moment to bask in the adrenaline of just having cheated death, Kayden got up and followed the two women. They moved through a series of corridors, passing back through the security checkpoints they’d cleared on their way in. When they finally emerged into the brightly lit atrium of the bottom floor they picked up the pace, jogging towards the exit.
They didn’t get very far before a steady stream of people began exiting the bank of elevators to their left, crowding the room and causing them to slow again. Several of them stared at Kayden – some of them with openly hostile looks on their faces, others with a mixture of curiosity and awe. Scratching his head awkwardly he leaned back and spoke to Elara in a hushed whisper, hoping that the dull roar of casual conversations around him would mask the sound.
“I don’t recognize these folks, but they sure seem to know me. Am I that famous now that Kel recognize me on-sight?”
Elara giggled slightly before responding. “Not exactly. These are the rest of the council representatives – the ones not in the president’s cabinet.”
“Ah.” Kayden nodded, remembering the rows of darkened seats in the council chambers. “I thought that they’d be moving your government to a secure location if there’s a threat of an attack?”
“Their priority is the president and her cabinet – there’s an executive shuttle on one of the top floors who can take them anywhere at a moment’s notice. For everyone else, there’s a larger ship parked outside.”
Kayden chuckled softly as they emerged into the large plaza surrounding the Athenium Spire, the bright blue sky above them mirroring their happy mood. “They have to sit in the cheap seats and their evacuation plan isn’t as fast? Talk about making some people feel unimportant.”
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Elara nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! See, it’s actually a sore spot amongst the representatives from some of the outer colonies – they feel like they don’t have any power in our government.”
“You know, humanity has had that problem in the past.” Dawn said, drawing on her own expertise as a diplomat. “If it’s left to fester it can cause a deep-rooted resentment within certain populations, and-”
[“Kayden.”] Ali interrupted tersely, causing him to tune out Dawn’s history lesson. [“A Voidborn fleet just entered the system.”]
“Shit.” Kayden swore out loud, drawing stares from both women.
“What is it?” Elara asked.
Kayden glanced backwards to see that more people were streaming out of the elevators behind them. The snippets of conversations he caught form the crowd still seemed casual, but he could detect a distinct undertone of fear in their voices. Not wanting to panic anyone, he moderated his language as he responded.
“Ali says we have some uninvited guests upstairs.”
Elara’s eyes went wide. “Are they…unfriendly guests?”
“Very.” Kayden responded.
“How? We monitor all the hyperlanes leading to other systems.”
[“They emerged outside of the known hyperlane network. It appears they have knowledge of additional hyperlanes that we lack.”] Ali explained. [“I have sent word to Ashley, asking her to investigate.”]
Kayden shook his head. “Our friends apparently know of a back door that we don’t.”
“What are they doing?” Dawn asked, gritting her teeth.
[“It appears their jump drives are spinning up for an in-system jump.”] Ali responded, pausing for a few seconds before continuing. [“They have emerged into orbit. The Kel fleet is engaging, but only a trio of destroyers made the in-system jump.”]
Abandoning all subtlety Kayden relayed the message to the two women before adding his own question. “Not that I’m complaining, but why are they attacking with only 3 ships? Sure, each of their ships is more powerful than ours in a 1-on-1 fight, but the Kel home fleet is more than capable of handling 3 destroyers.”
The sky above them flashed brightly several times before Dawn responded. “It sounds like a suicide attack. Sacrifice a few ships to take out a high-value target.”
Elara furrowed her brow. “Only humans would come up with the idea of a ‘suicide attack’. What target would possibly be high value enough to justify sacrificing perfectly good ships and crews to…to…”
Her train of thought trailed off as she watched the color drain from Kayden’s face. He looked around at the assembled council representatives and their various staffers, advisors, and other aides. Further back he saw crowds of Kel civilians moving around the enormous multicolored tower – the symbol of the Kel government – one that was now lacking the distinctive sheen of an energy shield due to the cyberattack.
Suddenly, a projectile round slammed into one of the top floors of the tower from orbit. An enormous fireball bloomed outwards, followed by a shockwave of force and the deafening roar of an explosion. Screams erupted from the crowd around them as it was quickly followed up by a second, then a third round.
In seconds, Kayden summoned his nanobot swarm and used most of them to create 3 suits of armour – one around himself, one around Elara, and one around Dawn. As they coalesced he began speaking quickly into his radio to ensure the two women would hear him over the chaos that surrounded them.
“Elara! Where is the shuttle for these people?”
She turned 180 degrees and pointed. “Over there! That building is a hangar!”
A piece of the tower fell behind them with a crash, killing dozens and wounding even more. Kel began running in every direction as yet more rounds impacted the tower, adding to the anarchy around them. Gritting his teeth Kayden turned his external suit speakers to maximum and addressed the crowd in Kel.
“This is your Asha’dara! If you want to live, come with me!”
His statement was enough to catch the attention of the dozen or so Kel nearest to him. They turned to look at him fearfully, but fell in behind him as he took off at a jog in the direction Elara indicated. Either from the momentum of the group or from some primal herd instinct others began to follow, and soon there were hundreds of Kel doing their best to keep up as yet more rounds impacted the tower behind them.
“That tower’s coming down if it takes much more punishment!” Dawn said, glancing backwards as she jogged next to Kayden.
“Let’s make sure we’re out of here before then!” Kayden replied as they neared the building.
Several scared-looking guards stood at the door to the hangar. They flung the door open as the mob approached, but as they drew close Kayden quickly realized it would take far too long to funnel everyone through the narrow bottleneck. Knowing that he only had seconds to devise a solution he sent a mental command to Ali, activating his adrenaline rush as he sprinted ahead.
He reached the door before the guards had a chance to react, his nanobots already billowing in clouds around him. They formed into an enormous claw that he swung heavily, narrowly avoiding the heads of the nearest Kel before crashing into the thin metal wall. There was a screeching sound as Kayden used his enhanced genetic strength to pry back the wall, creating a far wider opening.
As the world sped up around him Kayden didn’t relent, dissolving his nanobot-claw back into a swarm. While the crowd reached the hangar he ordered his nanobots to continue eating through the wall, replenishing his swarm and further widening the opening. Behind him the front line of the crowd slowed, as if scared by the sudden appearance of a swarm of miniature robots.
Kayden grunted in frustration as he turned on his external speakers again. “What the fuck are you waiting for, an invitation? Get in the shuttle!”
His words were punctuated by another trio of rounds hitting the tower, sending more chunks of the building tumbling down towards them. It served to eliminate any remaining hesitance, with the crowd running as fast as they could through the opening. Glancing in the hangar he saw the ‘shuttle’ – a 100-meter-long cylindrical purple ship with sleek-looking black fins on either side that housed a pair of black engines. To him it looked more like a freight hauler – easily as long as a corvette, but without any visible weaponry or shields. There was a door to the cockpit near the front of the craft, windows down the side, and a cargo bay door at the back – one which was currently open with guards on either side urging the crowd forward.
Satisfied, Kayden stepped to the side so as not to block the stampeding crowd. He was quickly joined by Dawn and Elara – the latter of which was barking rapid-fire instructions at the guards, telling them to venture out into the square and bring back as many wounded as they could before lifting off. He made a move to join them before Elara grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around.
“The pilots for that shuttle should have been here by now.”
“How do you know they’re not?” Kayden asked.
“They would have made a beeline for the cockpit, through that door there.” She said, pointing. “So far it looks like everyone has gone through the cargo bay.”
Kayden winced as another round hit the tower, causing it to lean precariously towards them. “You don’t think they’re still out there, do you?”
She shook her head. “I think they’re not coming. We need a pilot.”
“Fuck.” Kayden swore, gritting his teeth as he realized what she was saying.
“I recommend takeoff imminently.” Ali chimed in over the radio. “The tower will fall soon, and the resulting collapse will likely bury most of the surrounding buildings. Additionally, the exotic materials in the Voidborn munitions appear to be leeching radiation into the air and ground, resulting in-”
“I get it, I get it.” Kayden interrupted. “We don’t want to be here when that happens.”
“We’ll go with the guards and search for wounded. You start the pre-flight checks.” Elara said. “We’ll be back before you know it.”
Before he could object any further, Elara took off running into the plaza. Dawn shrugged and followed her, leaving Kayden to curse to himself before turning and running the opposite direction. He raced towards the comparatively small door at the fore of the shuttle, barking a command at the guard beside it to open it as he did.
Less than 30 seconds later Kayden slid into the captain’s chair of the shuttle, plugging his control cable in one smooth motion. The familiar rush of information washed over him as he took command of the ship, powering up the various systems and ensuring nothing had been damaged by falling debris. With a thought he sent a signal to open the hangar doors above them, revealing that the bright blue sky from moments ago was now obscured by billowing smoke.
“The tower is nearing collapse.” Ali said over the radio. “I recommend immediate extraction.”
“You heard the lady – time to go!” Kayden said, powering up the engines.
“Kayden there are still some survivors coming out of the tower!” Elara said, the pain clear in her voice.
“If we don’t leave now then we’re not saving anybody!” Kayden replied. “Back to the ship, double-time!”
Without waiting for her to reply, Kayden began powering up the engines. He kept the cargo bay door open as he began to lift off, hovering 1 meter off the ground. He forced himself to watch using the shuttle’s rear cameras as a steady stream of people continued to trickle in, leaping and scrambling into the cargo bay as they did. Two armoured figures raced through the crowd, urging as many people as they could forward.
“Kayden, you need to leave now.” Ali said sternly. “The tower is falling towards you.”
“Fuck!” Dawn added over the radio. “We’re aboard!”
With a deep breath Kayden shunted as much power as he could spare to the antigravity generators, causing them to rapidly ascend. He continued to watch as they lifted off, leaving far more people than he’d like behind. Arms reached out from the open cargo bay to pull the last stragglers who were hanging on to the edge of the ramp for dear life, but as they cleared the hangar he couldn’t help but wince as a pair of them lost their grip and tumbled back into the crowd.
The moment the last of the Kel were in he powered up the main engines, leaving the falling tower behind them. He numbly noticed Elara and Dawn had joined him in the cockpit and together they watched on the screen as the symbol of Kel authority collapsed onto the hangar, crushing where they’d been only moments before.