Chapter 10: C9 – Sariel

Bailey had just finished listening to May relaying the information. It was not good information.

‘Soy it again. The enemy can teleport? Both sides?’ Bailey stated, collapsing into her chair at the Agency. Maybelline sent over an affirmation after a few seconds, eliciting a large groan from Bai. ‘How do we even- how do you beat someone who can teleport?’

‘I have no clue, Bai, but maybe Jordan can help us out. It seems like the boosts came from the Ministry he talked about. Maybe he has a few.’ May suggested. ‘Otherwise, we’re going to need to rely on our wonderful and reliable Plan C.’

Bai shuddered. Plan C? No, thank you, indeed. She spun in her chair for a few minutes before setting off to the warehouse to contact Jordan. It was now pitch-dark night; Strix was collapsed onto a chair near the drawers, whilst Stella slumbered on top of the cupboards, her favourite napping spot. Excel had decided to take night watch of the warehouse, and he soon found Bailey joining him.

--

‘Good evening, Boss. I see they haven’t quite given up yet?’ nodded Excel, seeing Bailey enter whilst reloading her cane-cum-rifle. Bailey responded with a sharp nod, bypassing him to activate the portal once again.

‘Now is the best time, Bai. If I’m to be teleported with you, it’s better that we do it when nothing of importance is going on in the Stars base,’ May had said an hour ago, and Bailey had agreed. As the blue mist began coughing out to fill the frame, Bailey inspected the frame once more. Runic sigils, complex machinery… Just how advanced was this civilization? What did this all mean?

‘Bai. We’re on the clock. I can’t miss any info Ashur happens to drop.’

Right. Bai snapped back to focus and leapt in the portal after inputting the same number (This time, asking Maybelline to make sure everything was correct) and landing once again in the soft snow.

‘Oh, it’s you. Get inside,’ Jordan sighed.

--

‘And, so, essentially, that’s what it is.’ Bailey summarised. Going over something she just got told a few hours was quite difficult, but with May’s corrections, the entire story managed to get communicated effectively.

Throughout the story, Jordan stayed silent, but May had observed an intense glare in his eye quickly disappear upon mention of the man with a rabbit mask, as well as the story about importing marble. Now, he seemed to be deep in contemplation.

‘Well, I have no clue what marble is. And that is very, very bad news for your entire universe, I’m afraid.’ Jordan finally answered. He stood up, and turned to face the pictures on the wall. ‘Story time, again, I suppose.’

--

The first time a universe was accessed by Homeworld was using the timepiece of the Minister with a hyper-accelerated ship to break the barrier between dimensions and enter a new universe. He was lost in the fabrics of infinity for a century. Homeworld had moved on, but it was a spectacular sight indeed when he warped back in.

Entering a universe was easy. It was entering the correct universe that was difficult. But the Minister had done something special during his travels: Every universe held a special, unique resource that he had never seen before. He collected these and brought them back. On his return, he led research on these strange resources. After development ended, he was able to use those materials to anchor a Gate to their reality, and warp back.

The thing is, a large quantity of the material was required to anchor a larger Gate. So, he entered the universe, traded for or collected the material, and then prepared the first fleet to invade the targeted universe, fully conquering it, and taking the second ever timepiece held by Homeworld.

--

‘So, in essence, we’re doomed?’ Bailey summarised.

‘Well, not quite, Bai. They’re asking for more marble. That must mean they need more,’ Maybelline replied. ‘I feel like if we shut down the Stars, we should be fine.’

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‘It’s probably not a great situation for your universe,’ Jordan stated, contrary to May’s analysis. ‘You say there were truckloads of marble? I assume that is meant to be a large quantity. They may not have enough to send fleets, but I don’t doubt a simple dropship or, at worst, a Beamer couldn’t fit in the Gate they could make. Though, you are right. It would be better to stop them as fast as you can.’

Bailey noticed the specific words he used. The repeated use of ‘you’; it seemed like he did not intend to do anything at all. That was fine. Information was the key, however, and she needed to have it all. ‘Beamer?’

‘The newest advancement of Homeworld! At least, when I was still there. It destroys a planet with a single beam, and it even manages to take energy! A technological marvel! At least, that’s how it is marketed.’ A glance sideways to the illuminated balls in his backpack did not go unnoticed. ‘Energy is a limiting resource in Homeworld. To maintain the opulent life of every member, energy is required to continue.’

‘Wait up. So you say the gates require a material to anchor? How did I enter this universe here, with you, then? Surely inputting a code wouldn’t let me bypass this?’ Bailey inquired.

Jordan sighed. ‘They linked numbers to the Gates, to avoid building different ones each time, and simply placed the materials required near the Gate after inputting the number. I’ve taken all of the samples of the unique resource of this universe- the name of which I shall not share, sorry- that was on Homeworld, and retrieved it. They should never be able to find me. Especially since they’ve already cleared the timepiece of this universe; there should be no reason for them to try, at all.’

‘As for how you entered? I have no clue. You shouldn’t have any piece of my universe to let you enter. Is it even possible- No, surely not. There’s just no way you’d have- yeah. So how…’ Jordan seemed to get lost in thought at that.

‘As for how they entered your world in the first place? It would probably be using the starship acceleration method I told you about. Fleets of Rabbits constantly warp through space-time to find unexploited universes by pure luck. That’s generally the hardest job.’

‘May. Search this world, as fast as possible. Find the resource he’s talking about, if you can.’ Bai sent a mental message. May responded by flying off. There was something terribly off about this whole thing.

‘So, we wanted to ask you for help.’ Jordan’s eyes narrowed once more. He had resumed a sitting position, and rested his head on his arm whilst crossing his legs. ‘Sorry, Bailey. We may be conversational acquaintances, but I can’t expose myself just for your universe. I fight for a greater cause.’

‘I had presumed so. However, do you have any of those boosters they spoke about?’ That sent Jordan into another deep silence. ‘Those things are expensive to produce. But I suppose that’s the least I can do for you.’

A moment of hesitation. Then, he stood up, and went to grab a tiny sphere from the backpack. He crushed it into a powder, using his other arm to grasp his timepiece and bleed once more on the cold rock below. Runes wrapped themselves around his arm, before burning into his skin and dissipating, leaving a tiny pink ball in his palm.

‘Don’t ask about what those balls are. Just eat this, and you’ll have the power for a single day. The lengthier variant includes a guaranteed death within a year, so I have opted to exclude it from your version.’

‘I suppose that makes sense,’ Bailey mused. ‘Within a month, our universe might have been eradicated. Luckily, the leader of the Stars seems to be competent enough to bargain with the Rabbits. It’s a bit unfortunate he thinks too highly of himself.’

‘Well, I suggest you get out, then. Time in this universe flows slower- About 20 times slower than Homeworld Standard Timeflow, though I don’t know anything at all about how fast your universe flows. Though, you didn’t voice any complaints last time, so I assume you’d end up being fine. Try to disable their portal device. The rune that looks like this,’ he continued while projecting the rune into the air, ‘packs up the device into a very cute little cube, which you could hand to me for destruction, or just hide.’

‘Why would they even add such a- you know what, never mind. Time to go, I suppose.’ Bailey sighed. May was unable to find the resource- But that was fine. It was a secondary priority; more urgent was the imminent invasion coming through to her own universe.

It didn’t have a name, she realised as she jumped out of the portal. It was much too tedious to keep referring to her universe as ‘her universe’ in the third person point of view for whatever reason.

‘You could call it the Sariel Universe,’ Maybelline suggested. ‘If we’re to own the world- Or rather, the universe, one day, it would only make sense.’

‘Sariel Universe? Seems lengthy. I think I’ll go with just Sariel. I’m sure the angel won’t mind us borrowing his name, right? But if the heavens really existed, would we be in this position?’ Bailey speculated.

‘Hey, Bai. I’m hovering around you right now, as a spectral ghost. I don’t know about you, but that kinda makes me believe in angels, you know?’

‘That’s true. So, Sariel it is.’

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