Chapter 68: 67. Anything But Down

flew low above ground, I say low, but I mean around 100 foot above the ground. My HUD was screaming at me, words flashing in red that I mentally moved off to the side of my vision... The words "LOCK-ON DETECTED". I only left the alarm blaring in my ears as a constant reminder to keep looking at the radar and the objects closely following me to make sure to keep them at the same distance. To be precise, there were 15 other objects around me showing on that radar, 7 copies of myself, each with a large round of plasma following each of us. To say that controlling 8 of me simultaneously was difficult was an understatement. Nevertheless, I remained focused on the images that Boro-Nar had sent to the Relentless, images of the location and exact coordinates of each Phalanx cannon. Each of my copies had a target and we were going to hit our mark, we just had to make it close enough to each turret to get the plasma rounds in at the right angle so as not to destroy the ravine entirely.

We each had a specific marker pointing us to a gun, a waypoint marker on my HUD, closing in fast, meters, meters, , , , ... I started losing a bit more height as the ravine and the guns came into view and within seconds they had locked onto us and started firing. Rounds ripped past me with *zip zip zip* sounds, it was like looking up to the sky to see reddish yellow glowing hailstones raining down on me... 800 meters, 600 meters... the closer we got the more accurate the guns became, rounds started impacting my armour, same for each of my copies... 300 meters, 100... Right on target... Rounds shredded my face plates to bits, then quickly my face, just as I neared the gun...

-

Reikon: "You were reborn here... This place will be your tomb as well... IF you continue to persist!" Her voice seemed to echo from afar.

-

Me: "BAH!..." I screamed jumping up from Wrex's supporting arms and looked around the rest of the Team Fury in the back of this Roclaw, "...ooo... That stung a bit!" I said as I started rubbing my face... The sensation of 8 copies of mine being shot at by continuous 20mm minigun fire was weird... Tingly...

Ember: "Did you get them though?"

Me: "I think so? I'm not sure, they killed my copies before I could tell."

Wrex: "Centurian, confirm if anti-air has been neutralised?"

Boro-Nar: "Confirm Fury, all guns down, 8 for 8. I must say, I'm impressed with Alex's kamikaze runs. She is alright I presume?" He returned on the coms, Wrex turned back to me and smiled,

Me: "Your concern is appreciated, I'm worn out from running 8 of me at once, but otherwise I'm fine, thank you."

Boro-Nar: "Good. But no time for rest, we have work to do."

Me: "Agreed. Admiral-?"

Eishin: "Roclaws and Jessens are already on route. Hammer will be touching down in moments." He replied on the same frequency.

Me: "And the remaining Strike Force?"

Eishin: "Wave generators successfully bombarded as well. Strike Force are closing in to start clearing the debris to gain entry as we speak."

The 'Strike Force' was the remaining alive and able Strike Teams formed into one large group... They, along with Echo, were to rendezvous with Withers and Kick Back to attack the wave generators. Kick Back will lead the Strike Force into the bases via the Wave Generators. 1 battalion of Warriors class Vanguard were being flown in using larger troop transport shuttles called Jessens and a few Roclaws, they'll be joining the main charge into the ravine along with Centurion and Animal, leaving 1 Battalion in reserve if required.

For the sake of the mission they were labelled 'The Hammer', the team literally brute forcing their way through the front entrance. The hope was that taking out the turrets and with the Battalion raining in, SkyTech would be have no option to come out full force to try and defend the base. The idea then was was for Strike Force and Fury to get in, hopefully undetected, while Hammer were causing a distraction, and eventually work their way in themselves.

We, and by 'we', I'm referring to myself, the rest of Fury and Ember were going the underwater turbine route.

Pilot: "Almost at the landing zone..." He shouted back from the cockpit, "...looks clear. Bringing her down."

Me: "Alright guys, this is it, the final push..." The rear ramp opened above a clearing on a cliff top. I nodded back to the team, brought my helmet up into position and made a light jog out of the back of the craft. I free fell the 12 foot or so between the ramp and the ground, but the moment I gracefully landed, my brain exploded into activity and I could feel the Shard getting excited.

Me: "Argh!" I said hold my head going dizzy, 42 landed next to me and held me steady,

42: "You alright?"

Me: "Yeah... I think. Just a load of Reikon's memories burst into my head. But thank you, you were right where I needed you to be."

Wrex: "What did you say?" He growled slightly as the Roclaw left the hovering position it was holding behind, leaving us in peace and quiet except for the waves crashing into the cliffs below.

Me: "Reikon's memories? They-"

Wrex: "No, after that."

Me: "Thank you?, To 42?, He caught me?"

Wrex: "Yeah but it's that phrase, 'You were right where I needed you to be.' "

Sarah: "What about it?"

Wrex: "It was a phrase Reikon and Skylen use to say to each other." I looked at the floor in thought...

Me: "And Skylen said it first... The day they first met... The day she landed on him."

Wrex: "You remember that?" He asked sounding astonished.

Me: "I remember pretty much everything from her life, including when she first met you at the same time she met Skylen... She thought your smile was annoyingly charming back then too."

Ember: "Nice little trip down memory lane but we've got a job to do, and I'm not good with working with people, so can we move along?, Please?"

Me: "Yeah, alright... But there is something about this place... It's making the Shard act up and triggering the memories..." I looked around the relatively flat area, "...feels like I've been here before." Jinx and 42 started wandering off, looking around the area.

Wrex: "Oh noo..." Wrex surveyed the area himself, "...This place used to be a small viking village. And-"

Me: "Reikon died here, didn't she?" I asked while looking back over my shoulder at Wrex for him to confirm. I already knew the answer, I remembered it now, the invaders, attacking the village that I- or rather, Reikon was banished to, where after years, she rekindled with Skylen. He had returned the Shard to her, my Shard, that he had stolen from the palace, Reikon was in the middle of attempting to change herself back from her Human form that she was confined to, she was half way, a Hybrid... Exactly the form I was in now, when she was killed from behind by something destroying her house. That was when her soul was sucked into the Shard, that's the day that the end of one story, became the start of another.

Wrex: "Yes... The Reikon I knew died that day and never returned. She's not the same person anymore, whether twisted by her entrapment in the Shard or purely by her own greed, we'll never know. But I lost more than a friend that day." He said glumly.

Me: "But you gained more out of it, right? Me?, Us?, Family? Our own children?" He stiffened up on that last one.

Wrex: "Right. The reason we're here." Jinx screamed at that moment, we turned to see 42 holding her in an embrace and stepping her back away from a relatively fresh pile of disturbed earth and rocks, about the only thing that was breaking up this flat terrain, so we jogged on over to find out what was wrong.

There, on the other side of the pile was a body, Dragon, in Executioner armour. The only bits exposed and not covered in armour were their face and a stab wound to the chest... Both covered in maggots and mostly eaten away...

Sarah: " *Retch* oh god... That is foul."

Ember: "It's just a corpse buttercup, let's just get on with this already or I'll do it on my own." She said walking towards the cliff edge.

Me: "She's right guys, come on." I tugged 42 and Jinx away from the body and arrived at the cliff edge with Ember and looked down at the crashing waves about 50 foot below. I was still trying to suppress Reikon's memories, calm the Shard down, it was working slowly. But it was clear that this cliff top area where her home village once stood, bared quite some significance on her and the Shard... Right then, at that moment, a song came to mind, it seemed to silence everything, my mind calmed and I unintentionally started singing aloud...

Me: " # I used to know where the bottom was, somewhere far under the ocean waves. Upon a ledge, I was looking down, it was far enough to keep me safe...# "

42: "I now that song, Mike Shinoda, right?" I gave a few small nods before continuing,

Me: " #...But the ground was cracked open, threw me in the ocean, cast me out away at sea. And the waves are still breaking, now that I awaken, no one's left to answer me...# "

Sarah's armoured hand grabbed mine,

Sarah: "Hey, you ok?"

Me: "Just feels like everything has been building up to this. Like this is the end of it all, y'know?"

Ember: "All depends on how this plays out."

Wrex: "However it goes, I'm with you Alex." He grabbed my other hand.

Sarah: "We all are. We're a team."

Jinx: "Friends"

42: "A family."

Ember: "Oh god - Think I'm gonna puke."

Sarah: "Shut up, you're ruining the moment."

Ember: "We need to travel a mile under water, that way..." She said with a point off to our 11 o'clock "...and you're all stood here getting sappy."

Sarah: "You know one of these days, you might understand what 'love' is."

Ember: "Oh that's rich coming from you."

Me: "Yep, moment ruined. Just stop it you 2, I get that there's some sort of complicated history there but we need to get along, just for the next couple of hours maybe, so we don't die, alright?"

Ember: "Yes! Please! Agreed! Can we jump now?!"

Jinx: "Hey, speaking of Jumps, Alex? Why don't we just Jump inside? Or at least closer?"

Me: "I have no idea what opening Jumps under water will do, never tried it and, yes, I know we've been inside, but I don't know where that relates to it's location in the world. If I guess, then I could theoretically Jump us to inside of a wall or bedrock or something."

Jinx: "Ahh... Yeah, let's not do that then."

Me: "Alright Fury, double check your pressure seals. Keep your eyes peeled once we get down. Remember, whatever took out Thunder Child is still down here and if it's Kneel and Beg then there could well be Executioners. Stay low, stay quiet. Let's see if we can make it inside without confrontation. We all ready?..." I had green status lights from all of them blink on my HUD confirming their readiness, even Ember who had allowed me to sync up with her suit, even if it was just the basic readouts on status and coms. "...Alright then... Fury, let's rock!..." I placed 1 foot out in front of the other and allowed myself to fall from the cliff. I plummeted, spreading my wings half way to pull me some distance from the rocks at the bottom of the cliff face. "...we'll get a thousand meters out, then drop." Once the distance was achieved, I pulled my wings in again and dropped like a rock into the waves.

I allowed myself to drop to the sea bed, already 163 feet below sea level at the point I had landed and waited for the others to land near me, one by one, in short succession. I glanced around at them all,

Me: "Seals holding?" I got a thumbs up from Sarah and 42.

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Wrex: "All seals holding."

Jinx: "Well I don't feel wet so I guess I'm good."

Me: "Alright then, let's go..." I stated over the coms then started trudging forward, "...seems to be quite an undertow current here team, go careful."

Ember: "Of course, that's why they have turbines down here."

Jinx: "Hey, drop low, it's easier than fighting the current." I looked round to see her walking on all fours.

Wrex: "She's right, we'll be more streamlined." He too dropped, so did the rest of them.

Me: "Guess I'll just keep fighting the current on my own then." I jeered as I continued my normal upright walk.

We continued our walk in the direction of the turbine field, a waypoint marker I had placed, denoting where it should be on our HUDs.

Me: "550 meters to the field."

42: "Movement blip."

Wrex: "Where?"

42: "Our 9 o'clock."

Jinx: "I don't see anything."

Sarah: "Got nothing on my motion tracker either."

42: "There was blip on my tracker, for a split second."

Me: "I've got nothing either. Keep moving for now."

...

Jinx jumped up on to her hind legs and stepped and hopped backwards against the current to keep with us,

Jinx: "I had a blip just then, behind us." I turned to look for myself, but again saw nothing.

Me: "Hopefully it's just sea life. Fury, eyes on, we got an underwater cliff we need to jump down, 10 meters ahead." I stepped up to the edge and once again leapt off, the water slowed my descent and my feet hit the sea bed after a short fall once more, stirring up the silt and forming clouds around my feet. I started my walk once more as the others landed around me, also disturbing and throwing up the silt.

...

Me: "400 meters."

Ember: "Alex, there is something following us."

Me: "But we haven't seen anything and it hasn't attacked us yet."

Ember: "And you want to wait for that to happen?" Not a second later, Sarah announced what I could see for myself on my own motion tracker...

Sarah: "Motion tracker flaring up. Movement, all around us."

42: "Can anyone see anything? I don't see shit!" I started scanning through modes of vision while looking around, Infrared, radiation... nothing... I switched to life force readings and my whole vision turned yellow... Bugger... I guess my vision must be picking up on all the tiny organisms, like plankton, that surrounded us.

Wrex: "Alex, can you see anything with you powers?"

Me: "No, the water and sea life are messing with my vision, I can't pick out anything. Keep moving team, just keep your eyes peeled. We're almost there - 300 meters."

...

Ember: "Alex, we need to do something, we're walking into a trap."

Me: "Then I hate to say it, unless someone spots something, we'll just have to spring the trap. We have to get inside, the other teams will already be working their way in."

Ember: "I don't like this. This isn't the way I work. We need to rethink this."

Me: "Hey, it was your idea to come down here. Just keep moving. 200 meters guys."

Wrex: "There! Up ahead!"

Jinx: "You see the turbines?"

Wrex: "No, I definitely saw something move." For a split second, I thought I saw it too, flanking around to our right. Something big, slightly larger than a human.

Me: "Alright halt!" I held the equivalent military symbol, a closed fist to emphasise the point.

Ember: "Oh shit!" My motion tracking was flaring all around still but one red blob came at speed from the 9 o'clock but behind me, I spun to see Ember brace her self then seemingly get tackled by nothing but the flow of water, wiped from her feet entirely and dragged backwards along the seabed.

Me: "Ember!"

I stupidly allowed myself to get distracted, because clearly the same thing that took out Ember then took me out as well. I was knocked to the sea bed, the front of my helmet smashing into the sandy silt before being dragged along a few feet. I managed to spin myself and make a grab with my left hand at the seemingly empty waters above me, my open hand catching on something. I yanked whatever it was, brought my right gauntlet up and fired out my arm blade.

The middle of the blade disappeared in front of me, completely invisible, leaving the tip of it looking as though it was floating in front of me with wisps of dark red pouring out around it. The Executioner's armour right above me sputtered into existence as it's cloak promptly failed and the Executioner fell limp on top of me, my blade still lodged through his abdomen. I tried to throw him off but it turns out I was still being dragged along.

Wrex: "Alex?! Where are you?!"

42: "Contacts! Lots of them!"

Jinx: "I still can't see them! I don't know where to aim! ARGHH!"

42: "Jinx! Are you ok?!"

Jinx: "Grrr... I'm fine, got him."

Sarah: "Anyone see what happened to Ember? Or even Alex?!" Their radio chatter was constant as I was dragged away, so at least I knew they were mostly ok, so I reduced the volume of their chatter while I dealt with these guys.

I withdrew my blade back into my gauntlet from the dead one and more successfully this time, managed to roll him off of me, then swung with a left hook to whoever was dragging me from my right. It made contact, momentarily stopping them, just long enough for me to get to my feet and swing around them, now unleashing the left arm blade and swiped at the waters. It successfully made contact and again the cloak flickered and failed, revealing another Executioner cut clean through their mid section, blood and entrails erupting into the waters surrounding him. A blade screeched down the top of my helmet, clearly intending to pierce, but failed. I spun to find the source but was violently kicked in my left flank.

I fell, down another small cliff face apparently. Something quickly landed against my back as I fell, yanked my head back and I felt something sharp start digging into the softer gel layer. Having been stabbed in the back in the past I acted almost on instinct... The Shard flared up and charged my suit which then sent the high voltage into whoever was on my back. There was a shriek from behind and the grip around me was released. So I took the chance to retaliate, spun myself as we still dropped lower in depth. There was a female Executioner, decloaked and twitching violently, dagger falling from her hand past me. I wasn't holding back, I wasn't going to take a chance... I brought my fist up to her neck, charged my gauntlet and fired. The round boiled the water instantly as it left the exhaust port and vaporised her neck and part of her head.

With her dealt with I had to get back to the others, so I ignited my jets, shooting back up and over the edge of the small underwater cliff. I arrived slowly drifting back down to the sea bed to see the others frantically fighting nothing, or so it seemed. I quickly skimmed back through vision modes, though again nothing was showing... Then I had an idea... I concentrated and charged up a large pulse of Shard energy then let it erupt out from myself. The dome I had created of purple energy flickered and expanded out at a great rate away, encompassing the rest of Fury. A split second before the coms died out I heard each of them scream in agony and watched as each of them held their helmeted heads in pain.

The idea of my attack was not aimed at my own team, it was aimed at the Executioners that were swarming them. And it worked. Each and every Executioner's cloaks flickered and failed and they were left writhing in pain too. Now I quickly accessed Fury's suits and forced them to restart. What I did just then, was pulse the Shard's energy, temporarily cutting them all off from being able to use the Shard's powers. The other thing I did was create something like an EMP, which I'm pretty sure is what Skylen did to me back at the mansion all those moons ago. I knew what the suits needed to restart them after that so that's what I did, remotely accessing them and forced them to reboot.

Me: "Sorry guys, was the only thing I could think of to make them visible."

Sarah: "Could've have warned us."

Jinx: "Yeah that hurt!"

Wrex: "Indeed. But nevermind, it worked!"

Me: "Fury! Kick their asses!"

In that instant, the tides turned... No pun intended... The Executioners' main defence, their invisibility, was disabled, fully allowing my guys to rip and tear.

Wrex raised his gauntlet, charged and fired at a nearby Executioner - the round left the exhaust port, violently fizzled through the water, boiling it instantly as it passed through it and made contact with the Executioner who was still getting his bearings after being zapped. Sarah grabbed 1 that was floating above her and batted him towards Jinx who promptly stabbed him in the gut using her tail blades. 42 grabbed a nearby female, punched her in the helmert several times, smashing the visor and throwing her at another nearby Executioner - all this happened in seconds and in this time I had already started making my way towards them to assist.

There must have been dozens of Executioners swarming us, but Fury carried on being relentless at bringing them down. One by one and at a steady pace, they took them out, even before I made it back to them.

Jinx: "Have you noticed that we can't get any range on our plasma weapons?"

Sarah: "Yeah, the water must be cooling and slowing down our shots."

Me: "Save your shots until they're close, Fury. Has anyone seen where... Grr!.. where Ember went?" I asked as I finished swiping 1 of my arm blades diagonally through an Executioner's flank and up to their opposite shoulder.

42: "Not since she was tackled at the start along with you."

Wrex: "Jinx! On your 6!" I turned to see an Executioner restrain her by her arm and neck and another came charging toward her at full pace, slinking through the waters like an eel. Wrex momentarily boosted his jets to get over close to Jinx. The Executioner tried holding Jinx between herself and Wrex, trying to use her as a Human - or rather - Dragon shield. Wrex punched him hard in the face, stunning him enough to pull Jinx from his grip and to spin him around and smash him into the Executioner that was closing in. They both crashed into the sea bed, stirring up a silt cloud around them, creating a sort of smoke screen if you will.

One of them shot out from the silt cloud, ripping a buckled face plate off as he lunged for Wrex, jaw opened wide growling, the distorted snarl emanating from the escaping air bubbles. Wrex went for a swing of his extended tail blades, but the Executioner dived low, chomping his powerful jaw down into Wrex's knee, whipping him off his feet. Wrex's suit withstood the force, but only for a moment, it gave way under the powerful bite, Wrex's thrashing to desperately shake him off. A few small sparks erupted around the Executioner's jaw and it clamped further closed, Wrex now growling in pain loudly over the coms as he started beating the absolute shit out of the leach's head.

Me: "Wrex!" I called out as I charged as close to full pelt that the water would allow me. Thankfully Jinx was closer, she saw what had happened and grappled onto the Executioner's back, pulled a fist up over his right shoulder blade, charged her jet and fired. The shot melted through his back, killing him instantly and releasing his clamping hold on Wrex's knee. What was also released, was blood... Clouds of dark red gradually spewed from around his knee joint as he fell to his hands and knees, growling subtly in pain just as I got to his side.

(-Chris Holmes)

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