Marie Sanders: Planet Taraya, third cycle, the planetary year 2052

Marie found the bunker easily. She followed the path Marcus drew on the tactical map she took from his backpack. Nordis indeed was a bunker housed partly inside the natural cave. Natural cave opening was framed by concrete and the heavy bunker door was missing. It appeared as if someone tore it out of its hinges and threw it away somewhere else. She activated her Elemental and entered into the darkness.

The short rocky hallway was paved with the same steel plates as streets in Aegis. The hallway widened into the main oval room where the natural rock was laced with thick concrete. The new room was populated with dusty tables, chairs, and computers. With her enhanced vision she noticed figures moving in the corner of the room. One of them dashed toward her and tried to cut her with a knife. She smiled, as her life was in danger, she was officially allowed to kill them all by the Adjuster law. I guess I'll leave one alive for questioning.

She blocked the incoming attack and kicked her target in the chest. She hated wasting primal matter in combat, so she decided not to make any weapons. Her enemies looked weak at first glance after all. The enemy she kicked hit the room's concrete wall, converting it to a mix of dust and debris of various sizes, only to be stopped by the rebar mesh inside it. Wall fought back too, and various parts of the armor her opponent wore broke off, revealing its wearer. It looked human but felt different.

Marie had no time to further inspect the fighter she kicked because other attackers switched to rifles and shot at her. Marie kicked the rifle out of the closest assailant's hands and retaliated by hitting the shooter with the open hand distributing force over the chest plate. The second attacker staggered from the hit and fell followed by a loud metallic clank. Others wasted no time and continued firing at her. A few projectiles hit her but with little to no effect. Corwalan combat suit proved sturdier than she expected it to be.

She then chose a new target. The one closest to her. She decided to hook-kick her target’s head off with her right leg, but before her foot connected, she caught the glimpse of something dashing toward her from the left. It was too late for her to react to the attack. Her attacker’s kick was insanely powerful. Her new foe kicked her in the left side of the chest and launched her toward the opposing wall. She couldn’t see gravitons while rolling so she guessed their location and transferred them behind her back to stabilize her. She didn’t gather enough so it took a while to stop tumbling.

When she finally stopped herself, she was kneeling on one knee with the left portion of her combat suit being completely stripped away. Her shirt was torn and her skin scrapped. She raised her head to face her attacker, just in time to see a fist flying towards her. Thanks to her inhuman reflexes, she tilted her head enough to dodge the direct hit, and then grabbed the attacker’s arm, and threw the attacker toward the wall that was behind her.

A satisfying loud thud, followed by the sound of pieces of concrete falling on the ground, meant the attacker failed to recover from the throw, and that made her happy. She loved hand-to-hand combat, and every fight was an opportunity for her to improve her skills. Marie stood up and braced herself for the possible counter-attack coming from the cloud of dust. Other soldiers stopped firing after seeing their weapons did no damage to her. They decided to not get involved in this new fight, and stood still, observing.

Her attacker then emerged from the cloud of settling concrete dust and it was the first time Marie got a good look at him. He was human, quite short, with black hair and beard, and light brown skin. His eyes were purple, the same as hers when her Elemental was active. He was Exonerated too. Marie was confused, it was very rare for Adjusters to dispatch two warriors on the same mission. Also, he seemed to have arrived before her, and there was nothing about it in her mind stone.

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She grabbed some of the primal matter and crushed it together with the plasma energy capsules she carried on her. She then opened her fist and the Adjuster combat spear came into existence before her eyes. It was a weapon reserved only to fight the other Exonerated.

“You’re Exonerated too. Why are you here? Why wasn’t your dispatchment communicated to me? “ she inquired, and external speakers of her suit distorted her voice.

The man said nothing. Instead, he lunged at her holding the same spear as hers in his right hand. His attack surprised her. She managed to block it with her spear handle, but the attack was too heavy and it knocked the spear out of her hands. She urgently swiped some gravitons to slow down his next swing aimed at her chest bone. But it didn't help. Spearhead hit her chest bone length-wise and traveled through it like nothing was there, ignoring the Corwalan armor. It passed cleanly out of her back, missing her heart and breaking a few ribs on its way out. Purple blood gushed out of her wounds down metallic armor plates, still steaming hot from the Elemental activation.

She lost control of her body and fell to her knees. Her attacker approached and pulled the spear out of her chest in one well-trained motion. She then fell on her side. The clunk of her suit's helmet hitting the floor echoed in the room. She saw her attacker squeezing the spear handle and spear turning to black dust, then falling on the ground and mixing with a growing puddle of her blood. He hovered over her and stripped her helmet off her head.

“I’m Jay Connors, Second cycle human Exonerated from planet Soultra." he suddenly spoke using the common tongue.

"I was one of the first Exonerated soldiers, but I broke ties with your band of merry psychotic masters. I'm a freelancer now. I collect weapons and recruit soldiers, for the upcoming war against the Adjusters. Time to bite the hand that holds the leash.” the man finished and threw himself in one of the dusty chairs that creaked in response.

“Ah, lassie, you got very unlucky with this assignment. I’m sorry for hurting you, but to be fair, you attacked first. “ he finished and then leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees, and continued.

”I felt your Elemental’s energy, and let me tell you, it wasn't something I would call factory spec. Its awareness level is quite high, its leash is loose. I reckon it's worth helping you take it off its neck. Seems like its life force leaked from the bonding crystals into your blood. Adjusters can’t detect this, so don’t worry. This situation is to our advantage. The only known side effect of this is your memories mixing with Elemental’s, but you can train yourself to differentiate between the two. ” Jay finally finished and spun in the office chair like a playful kid. Marie tried to talk but her windpipe was still full of blood so all that came out were indistinct sounds.

“ It's okay lassie” Jay interrupted her “You don't need to force yourself. I'll tell you everything Adjusters didn’t want you to know. First revelation, Elementals are sentient beings who lived during the First cycle, and Adjusters turned them into their tools. They did the same to humans.” Jay paused for a moment like he was choosing what to share, and then continued

“Here’s the deal, lassie. I would recommend not resisting your Elemental. Set it free from servitude. Build some symbiosis together. We may need its help down the line.” Jay’s voice changed. It was not the voice of a teacher schooling his pupil anymore. It was the voice of an army recruiter.

“Now, about your mission. What happened? What caused this mess? Equipment malfunction, you could say. I found the battle cruiser parked in system sun's orbit. It looked like the ones the first humans, Earthlings, used to make. How it survived through two universe recreations is what troubles me still. But I digress, back to the topic. The cruiser was full of ancient soldiers in stasis. But they turned out to be one of our ancestors’ cruel experiments. Every single one was artificial and had a control chip buried in their brains. But still a good find. The old battle cruiser was in bad shape, but operational. It had some form of subspace jumping capabilities. But I underestimated what eons in vacuum had done to her. The ship opened the subspace gate but never entered the subspace, or closed the gate. I copied the ship’s database and steered the ship into the sun. I used the escape pods with the two platoons of soldiers I had awakened to crash-land on Taraya. Some of them died during the descent, some of them on landing. Tarayans rushed to investigate, and soldiers freaked out and attacked them. War with natives.” he finally finished with a sigh.

“I'm tired, lassie. Of eternal life, of watching everyone around me die. Of universe cycles, of everything. We have to end this madness. We have to return the universe to what it once had been. We have to find the Architects before Adjusters do.” After finishing his monologue, Jay took one of the mind stones and left it on the table.

"Go through the data in this mind stone. Visit Soultra. Learn about what Adjusters are. Free your Elemental. And then pick your side in the war to come. " he said and opened the personal subspace gate taking the few surviving soldiers through it.

After the gate closed, Marie was left alone in the dark with the only hum of her hardworking Elemental to keep her company.

"I shouldn't have taken this job. " Marie whispered to the darkness around her and laughed at her joke.