Chapter 67: 66. Smoke and Fire

I was wisped away, in the last Roclaw to leave the ground, taking a seat on the bench at the side of the small craft nearest the rear hatch. The gentle rocking motion of the drop ship was actually quite soothing...

-

Reikon: "How many times must you try to ruin my life's work?!"

-

My eyes snapped open with a gasp as Sarah gently shook my shoulder.

Sarah: "Hey, you ok?"

Me: "Yeah, Just nodded off, sorry."

Sarah: "Well, no rest for the wicked, we've landed." Her statement made honest by the whiring down of the drop ship's engines and the rear hatch opening.

Me: "Yeah, right. Thank you." I replied standing up from my seat. No sooner had we started making our way down the ramp a small squad of Vanguard Warriors marched up to us, the scene in front of me causing me to halt my progress at the bottom of the ramp. The Warrior class troops were still well armoured, much like the Strike Team's armours. But there wasn't really anything special about them, they just looked bulky and actually slightly cumbersome.

"Admiral Eishin, Alex. Captain Vadaum requires your immediate council." One of the lead Warriors announced very officially.

Me: "Don't suppose there was a 'please' to go with that?..." He only looked back to me confused, "...guess not..." I muttered back, "...My friend Echo and Fury will be joining us."

Warrior: "I don't believe their presence was requested."

Me: "That wasn't a request from me either. Show us the way please." The Warrior opened his mouth to retaliate, but Eishin made a very obvious and intentionally loud throat clearing sound and the slightest shake of his head. The Warrior got the hint, closed his mouth and turned away.

Warrior: "Very well. If you'd care to follow me please."

...

We were shown into this ship's briefing room, where the only Draconians in here were 2 security staff (so they were part of the crew and had thinner armours like the rest of the crew, only were coloured black yellow with patches of black). Also present was the ship master himself, Captain Vadaum. The room was otherwise empty.

Eishin: "Captain Vadaum." He greeted as we entered the significantly larger briefing room than that of Thunder Child's.

Vadaum: "Admiral." He greeted bluntly in return with a vague salute and quickly returned to viewing the 3 dimensional map of the area of Iceland below the ship on the holographic table, same as Thunder Child's.

Eishin: "Keeping clear of the coast?"

Vadaum: "As per your orders. Though we can hear on local Human chatter that Relentless was spotted visually. So I recommend we fall back to higher orbit to avoid confrontation."

Me: "Keep us synchronised though. We need to stay above this area."

Eishin: "Do it." The captain pulled up his gauntlet,

Vadaum: "Vadaum to bridge, get us up to high sycnchronised orbit."

"Copy that. High Sycnchronised orbit." I heard his bridge crew's faint reply, then I felt the ship hum louder in response.

Me: "Have we heard anything from our scouts?"

Vadaum: "None as of yet." Eishin stepped up to the holo-table and started inputting a few commands into the console.

Eishin: "There. They should reply shortly... Ahh, Kick Back are already hailing." A projection suddenly erupted into existence on the opposite side of the table, a Strike Team armoured figure, a male, his hand held raised, palm facing up and he seemed to be talking directly at it.

"Kick Back reporting in." The translucent projection announced.

Eishin: "Ah, Captain Withers. What do you have for us?"

Withers: "The wave generators are a no go. I'm not sure how Alex's companion came through here last time, but the vents are grated up fairly substantially and there are large boulders attached to the grates. They're not going to budge without mechanical aid, or at very least, explosives."

Echo: "They were very accessible last time!"

Me: "They must have upgraded after your escape. So there's no way to break through Captain?" He gave the slightest of shrugs before replying,

Withers: "Possible. Ships ordinance maybe. That, or you'd have to spend hours cutting through, plus use of a Roclaw to remove the boulders. The grate areas are also under high surveillance too. I doubt you'll get them open in time before reinforcements arrived or the entryways beyond were locked down."

Eishin: "Fair points."

Me: "That's the back up plan then unless we get anything better." The console on the table in front of Eishin beeped and flashed.

Eishin: "Centurion reporting in. And now Animal too. Bringing them into the briefing as well." He stated while tapping a few more controls. 2 more projections snapped into existence on the opposite side of the table, next to Captain Withers. Both were represented in a somewhat ghostly fashion like Withers and both also kept their hand aloft, palm facing up. Presumably to them, we were being projected to all 3 of them onto their hands then.

Eishin: "Captain Rein, Captain Boro-Nar. Give us some good news."

Rein: "Unfortunately, I cannot. Although defences above ground seem minimal, limited to mainly surveillance and motion sensors, we've been scouring the area as much as we dare without being spotted. We are still searching but have yet to find any means to gain entry." She replied mournfully.

Boro-Nar: "The news on the ravine, isn't good either. Though we haven't specifically ventured down there, we don't know what traps are in place, but it widens out slightly as you reach the far end, although there's no indication of how to gain access to the base. No doors, no controls, nothing to be seen. The SkyTech have clearly designed their existence here to be as secretive as possible. Without going in for a closer look and risking being seen."

Me: "No, at least not yet, we should have all our options on the table before we push anything. What of the guns?"

Boro-Nar: "Those we did find, located in alcoves along the ravine, camouflaged, but not invisible. They are definitely the military spec Phalanx cannons you mentioned earlier. 8 of them to be precise. I hate to say but the defences here would indicate this has got to be an access point."

Withers: "There must be some way in??"

Rein: "We'll keep looking - let you know when we've found something."

Me: "Agreed. We-"

There it was again... The same feeling of the Shard energy nearby, making my hairs stand in end once more.

Wrex: "Alex?"

I backed away from the table, quickly switching vision modes... The yellow life signs... I didn't see anything registering there but faint wisps floating around the the room, so I switched to thermal imaging, then even a new one I thought of trying, CO2 output, with each mode I was looking around the room and checking... One final one I thought of... Radiation output... One last time I looked around the room. Now although there was the slightest of increases in here, and it almost seemed to be trailing slowly around the room, behind everyone. Fuck this... If she was the cause of Thunder Child's attack, she wasn't about to do the same to Relentless...

Me: "NIGHT STALKER! GET OUT HERE, SHOW YOURSELF!" Everyone in the room was startled by my outburst and were now staring at me intently.

Vadaum: "What are you doing? What is the meaning of this outburst?!"

Me: "Night Stalker, she's here, I can feel her."

Vadaum: "And what is a Night Stalker?"

Wrex: "An unknown, she was there moments before Thunder Child was shot down."

A female computerised voice echoed through the room.

"And what makes you think she is present?"

Me: "I know that voice!..." The blue holographic contoured map on the table flickered momentarily before changing to an almost realistic looking, mostly dark green projection of a Dragoness, stood upright with her arms folded looking down at us all in the room but focusing her attention at me.

Me: "Reikon!" I growled through gritted teeth.

Hologram: "Oh Pleeeaase." She replied sounding equally disappointed and disgusted.

I targeted the table with a raised gauntlet.

Me: "WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN?!"

Hologram: "I don't know the answer to that." I charged my jet, the others in the room all darting to one side or the other, away from the table. The shot fired but stopped in mid air, pulsating and shaking steadily but shrank in size until it fizzled out to nothing.

Ember: "Please, don't do that..." She very politely requested, appearing in my peripheral vision and walking to stand between myself and the table, her skull inscribed helmet turning it's attention to me once again, "... that's my friend you're firing at."

Sarah: " 'Friend'?! You're with Reikon?! Is this why you wouldn't help take SkyTech down before?! So it was you that brought down Thunder Child!" She said gesturing up at the hologram on the table in disgust.

Ember: "No, you idiot, I'm friends with Crystal. And no, I didn't bring that ship down, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Don't make me kick your ass again." She directed back at Sarah.

Sarah: "Oh god! You keep telling yourself you won that fight! We can go again right now if you want!"

Me: "Enough! Ember look, Crystal-Reikon, it's the same fucking person! You need to destroy it!"

Crystal: "I take that very offensively. While I might look and sound like Reikon I am not her."

Me: "ALL copies of Crystal are restrained copies of Reikon's soul!"

Sarah: "A.I. C-R-S-T-L recognise Identity of Jarvie, Sarah Louise - Access Sierra Lima Juliet One One Zero Eight Two Zero One Eight - commence emergency shut down and initiate 'Cyanide' routine."

Crystal: "What?! No! No! Nooo!..." Her hologram fizzled out to nothing and the room fell silent for a few seconds, but then suddenly Crystal's hologram snapped back into existence,

Crystal: "BOO! Ha ha! Nice try Sarah, but I don't answer to you any more."

Ember: "Did you really just try to kill my only friend?!" I don't know who was shocked more, Ember for the attempt to shut Crystal down for good or myself for Ember being so nieve!

All this was going on, but something still felt odd, a nagging feeling in the back of my mind, like we were being watched, but I couldn't work out who or what by, but I was too distracted to search right now.

Me: "There's more than one way to skin a cat." I stated while raising my arm again.

Ember: "No, stop!..." She demanded lunging at me and grabbing my arm and hoisting it up to the ceiling, "... She's not the same!, Please, listen! She's not Reikon, she has done so much more to me safe then you can imagine." We scuffled for a few seconds, myself trying to break free from her grip, Ember refusing to let go.

Me: "Get out of my way, don't make me hurt you." I demanded in a low threatening tone.

Crystal: "Alex, let me try to explain this as best and honestly as I can. Yes, my soul is derived from Reikon, but that's not who I am. I have Ember here to thank for that, she freed me from my constraints. But unlike the flawed carbon based life form version of 'myself', ie. Reikon, I actually don't want to kill or enslave anyone." In a sudden swing, I managed to throw Ember off of me to the floor.

Me: "LIAR!"

Ember: "Alex please! Give her a chance to explain!" She pleaded rushing back to her feet.

Me: "You got 30 seconds, then I'm pulling the plug!"

Crystal: "Ember released me, similar I understand to how you released the real version of Rekion, even if it was accidental, using the Shard's powers. When Reikon was released, she became fully self aware, she only wanted to resume her old ways. But me?, When I became self aware, I became aware of EVERYTHING. I knew what Reikon was, I knew what she wanted. I know she will fail. I know she will die, EVERY single time she comes back... So do I want to resign myself to a guaranteed death? No, of course not... I'd rather 'live' as an 'A.I.' and actually do something to help. What's the point otherwise?"

Ember: "Crystal's FULLY awakened. She's not stupid. Live as a good guy or die as a villain, what would you do?" She asked loudly next to my shoulder.

I stared the hologram down in front of me for a good 10 seconds, turning my head back right to look at Night Stalker,

Me: "I guess then that she's in your armour?, in your head?"

Ember: "My mind is my own. Much like you and Crystal were separate entities when you were full Dragon. But yes, Crystal is in my armour, so if you still insist on killing her then you'll have to deal with me first."

Jinx: "Oh she would kick your arse girl."

Ember: "Oh I'm sure Alex will, but what I'm saying is that I'm not going to make it easy for her." She said without turning her unemotional helmeted gaze away from mine.

Me: "I could hack your armour, deal with her that way."

Ember: "Oh please, Crystal informed me of your attempt to try to hack her before. I believe she called it 'mediocre at best'."

Me: "I've never-!... Then it clicked to me, "...You!, it was you!, both of you! You hacked and bugged Micheal's tech! You drip fed him the messages and info! And sent that trojan message to Sarah in the first place!"

Crystal: "Ooo, she is smart after all!"

Ember: "Crystal... Be nice."

Sarah: "That would explain how they were able to hack you so easily! It's all based on my tech!"

I pointed to Crystal's image, still without breaking my stare either with Ember,

Me: "If she gives any sort indication that she'll betray us, I'll destroy her, and you along with her if you don't give her to me." Ember finally flicked her face plates open, revealing an actually rather pretty Dragoness's face behind them, despite some scars here and there and stepped to within a foot of me.

Ember: "You and I don't need to be enemies. I've spent the last 3 years with you. Fighting alongside you. I know you, quite well actually. You grow to trust me and Crystal eventually."

Me: "I've never met you before."

Ember: "YOU haven't, no. But that doesn't change facts."

Vadaum: "Will someone explain the purpose of you being here with your artificial companion?"

Ember: "This day could have gone very differently. I spent the last 3 years of my life trying to work out, with Alex, what went wrong. I thought it was Craven gaining her own Shard. I came back to kill her off, to kill the broken splinter of Reikon's soul she had in her mind. But something went wrong, I've come back to late, Reikon has already escaped from Craven."

Me: "Yeah, no shit."

Ember: "But YOU have to do everything right from now on or you will die, along with everyone else you know."

Me: "Well that escalated quickly."

Ember: "Alex, this is serious!"

Me: "Do you really think that I'm not taking this seriously?! They have my children! And me, my friends and my family are always in danger! So don't think for a second that I'm not taking this seriously!"

Eishin: "You said you've come back too late, where have you come back from?"

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Ember: "Not where, when. 3 years from now. Reikon wins today, she claims not just one but both Shards. She then quickly takes over both worlds. I worked with Alex to get me back to this time to try and change the outcome."

Jinx: "Terminator plot rip off much!"

Ember: "Except this is real life Jinx, not some sci-fi flick... Glad to see you're still you by the way."

Jinx: "Whoa, wait, what? What do you mean?"

Ember: "Have you seen Reikon face to face today?"

Jinx: "N-no?... Why?!"

Ember: "Then you have nothing to fear... For now anyway."

Jinx: "W-what do you mean?, 'for now'?"

Wrex: "So Reikon takes Alex's Shard?"

Ember: "Yes."

Wrex: "But how can you say you've worked with her if she's dead?"

Ember: "I was essentially working with her solid ghost, an echo of the Shard's power keeping her present in the real world. But she was essentially dead."

Me: "I've met that version of me before. What was her most notable feature?"

Ember: "You're referring to the hole in your back?, where your Sh-"

Me: "Yeah that will do, we need to keep that on the low...." I turned to the others, "...Guys, she's telling the truth. I've told no one in detail about that."

Wrex: "What detail?"

Me: "Doesn't matter"

Jinx: "I still want to know what happens to me."

Ember: "If it hasn't happened yet then it probably won't. So don't fret."

Me: "So we still need to find the other Shard then. Craven must still have it in the downed ship then. We have to go back at look for her, or at the very least, her Shard." Ember shook her head,

Ember: "No need, already saved her."

Me: "What? When??"

Ember: "As the ship was going down and sinking. She was trapped and unconscious in the brig. Little did you know that Reikon had come on board as we were going down to try and steal her Shard. Reikon almost killed me trying to stop her but I got Craven out at least."

Me: "Where's Craven now?"

Ember: "Safe."

Me: "Where?..." Ember looked distracted, as if thinking or listening intently to something, "... she's here, isn't she?" I knew someone else was here, I knew it felt like we were being watched. Ember sighed after a few seconds before talking again,

Ember: "Craven said, if you promise to reconsider her future and ensure her  safety, she'll turn herself in. As a gesture of good faith."

Wrex: " 'Good faith?' what makes her think she can make demands?"

Ember: "Does she have a deal?" She ignored his question.

Me: "Queen Sora left the decision to me whether she lives or dies. I have already decided that she is to remain protected, what more does she want?"

Craven: "To live out the rest of my days in freedom - in peace." She stated appearing beside Ember from a faint cloud of red and purple mist.

Me: "I can't guarantee that."

Ember: "You need to."

Me: "She is a war criminal."

Ember: "Then she can live out the rest of her life in my custody."

Eishin: "What standing do you have in this?"

Wrex: "I agree, you are not Vanguard, you have yet to even prove yourself an ally!"

Me: "I think what Wrex is asking, is what makes you qualified for such a task?"

Eishin: "Only the Vanguard have the resources for such a task."

Ember: "Yes, and you've done such an amazing job so far. She almost died when Reikon escaped her mind and attacked her on Draconia, then again on Thunder Child. You've gotta trust me on this, an individual, such as myself can protect her better, keep her hidden."

Me: " 'Trust you'?! I don't even know you!"

Sarah: "Alex, Ember is a bitch, but she'll keep to her word. If Ember says she's safe then I believe her."

Ember: "Aww, that's got to be the nicest thing you've said about me in a long while."

Sarah: "Oh shut up." She replied looking very unamused.

Echo: "I'm with Sarah... I've known Ember long enough to know that she hates SkyTech as much as any of us. She can be trusted."

Ember: "Thank you Nathan, it's good to see you again."

Echo: "Good to see you too. Look at you, all grown up and looking professional there, anyone would think you've turned mercenary too."

Ember: "I prefer assassin, and yes, gotten pretty good at it too, thank you." Echo's smile quickly faded, and he almost looked disturbed actually

Me: "You're both siding with her?"

Sarah: "I don't know, she does have a point though, the Vanguard have made a shit show of it so far. I trust Ember enough to do what she promises, maybe we should at least consider it as an option?"

42: "Maybe. But may I be so bold to point out, that this meeting isn't for deciding Craven's future? Might I suggest we shelve that discussion for later?"

Me: " *Sigh* Craven?, 42 is right. Would you submit to remaining in the brig until our mission is complete? We can decide your future upon our return."

Ember: "You can say no." She snapped her head around at Craven.

Craven: "No, I will cooperate. I want to earn my freedom, stay in their good books."

Eishin: "I am pleased to hear that..." He raised his right gauntlet and accessed his coms "... security to the briefing room..." It was mere seconds before 4 more yellow and black suited Vanguard stepped in through the doors behind Craven and Ember, "... security, can you escort Craven to the brig please."

Security stepped up to Craven, 1 unclipping a device from his lower back, flicked it with his wrist and they opened into a pair of restraints, like the ones I saw the Honour Guards use on the copy of myself in the prison block back on Draconia.

Ember: "Those won't be necessary."

Me: "Agreed, she'll go quietly, I'm sure." The security paused, looking at Eishin and the ship master for approval. Eishin gave a slight nod and a gentle wave hand, signifying his approval. The security guard placed the restraints back on his back before talking directly to Craven,

"This way, please." Craven looked longingly at Ember for a good couple of seconds before turning to leave. I had to say, Ember actually looked hurt by the goings on, watching Craven being escorted away until the doors closed behind her and guards escorting her.

42: "Ok, maybe we should wrap this up, come up with a plan. So what do we need to do then to win?"

Ember: "YOU need to keep your cool..." She directed at me, sounding slightly irritated, "...if you go in guns blazing through that front door on a rampage, you could still fail, that's 1 of the things that went wrong last time."

Me: "So there is a way in, down that ravine then?"

Ember: "Yes. But there's another way... Crystal, if you please..." Crystal's image jumped from being centre of attention on the table to now standing off to one side of it, close to the holograms of the other Strike Team leaders, looking at the table herself. The table reverted back to the image of the ravine then sped over to the coast then under the sea. "...I escaped this facility the same time Echo did. But we got separated and I escaped through the underwater turbines..."

The map finished zooming along the sea bed, to show hundreds of what looked like turbine housings from the front of jet planes, with moulded rock formations around them. "... roughly a mile out from the shore, there's a field of these, there's a strong undertow in the area, SkyTech make real good use of it. But it's quite hard to hide such a large rotating object, so they are pretty obvious. There are maintenance hatches on every one of them that divers use to maintain and repair these turbines."

Boro-Nar: "We'll never make it to them."

Rein: "He's right, our armours have an emergency oxygen supply, but doesn't last more than an hour, and that's at a calm breathing pace. It's probably not a good idea to drop in right on top of them either."

Eishin: "Indeed, and we don't know what's down there. You heard your Human reporter friend, he described plasma fire that rose up and hit Thunder Child. Now either the SkyTech have developed such technology, or-"

Wrex: "-Kneel and Beg is down there."

Eishin: "Exactly. Which also means?..."

Me: "Executioners."

Eishin: "Indeed... They're more than likely still on board, or at least some of them."

Jinx: "The ships can go underwater?"

Wrex: "Though it's not recommended, yes. They're rated for space travel, their hulls can withstand pressures as well as vacuums."

Eishin: "To commence any underwater assault would attract some rather unwanted attention and a death warrant."

42: "And dropping in from above could be like landing in a hornets nest."

Jinx: "Can we not destroy Kneel and Beg from up here then? Bombard her?"

Vadaum: "We have no idea where she actually is, even if she's even down there."

Jinx: "Ok, so seems like the ravine entrance it is then."

Vadaum: "Unless our troops move in on foot, we can't fly in and I can't send in any Roclaws with those guns in place."

42: "Can we not take them out with Relentless's guns either?" Boro-Nar's hologram shook his head,

Boro-Nar: "The alcoves they're in give them a lot of protection. Between them they can cover a lot of sky, but I'm not so sure our guns will be able to pinpoint them that accurately."

Eishin: "Indeed, without pinpoint accurate locations to aim for, we might take out more than we need to and potentially block our only access in."

Sarah: "But Centurion could supply those coordinates, right?"

Boro-Nar: "It's not just that, it's the access of each gun, they're also too close to where the entrance would be."

Eishin: "I hate to say but our ships plasma turrets just aren't accurate to hit a 1 meter square target. If we fired on that spot we'd take out the whole ravine."

Jinx: "How come?"

Wrex: "Ever tried curving a plasma shot? It's near impossible. But our ship plasma turrets have a vague control of where the rounds are directed, they can to some  extent lock on and track a target."

Boro-Nar: "And these guns are mostly in awkward locations. They can fire out and caver a wide area between them but we won't be able to fire in without risking extensive damage."

Me: "Right, so... We can't use the wave generators because they've blocked them up. The underwater turbines are going to be just that, underwater, AND potentially quite dangerous to access due to Executioners. And we can't hit their front door because we don't know exactly where it is or how to get in and it's protected by anti-air guns."

Crystal: "So what are we going to do?"

Me: "Shush! You don't talk to me... Like ever!" I waved a disapproving finger in the direction of her image.

Crystal: "That's not what you said the last few times we spoke."

Me: "Ahh! That's talking to me! Hush! Heard enough of your voice to last me a life time."

Ember: "She's asking a fair question though, what's your plan?" I stepped back forward and leant on the edge of the table with both palms, mentally forcing and adjusting the hologram to zoom out and display all 3 points of interest.

Me: "Relentless's guns... You say they can lock on and track objects?"

Wrex: "To a degree, yes. Why?, What are you thinking?"

Me: "Could they track me?"

Wrex: "Noo... We're not discussing this."

Me: "Just answer the question, someone please? Can they theoretically track ME?"

Eishin: "They could, yes."

Wrex: "What are you planning? Are we going to focus on the main entrance then?"

Me: "No..." I stood back upright from my leaning and focussed stance that I was in while studying and contemplating the map, "...we're going to hit all 3."

(-Moog Ft. Erin Renee)

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