(Ch 19 - continued)
Going in, I tried to memorize the web pattern overrunning the complex. If they followed the usual methodology of Outpost builds, there should be landing pads off to the sides, and just where square patterns seemed to be. That inner part of the bio-electronic mess was covered and I didn’t want to risk whatever it was trying to assimilate our ships, so I steered us over and settled into what seemed the same hollow we appeared in. As we emerged from our ships, Kyleen shouted, “An intruder!”
I looked where she was beginning to aim her Multitool and spotted a familiar figure. I jumped in front of her shouting, “Wait! It’s a friend of mine!”
She was already miffed at me as she pulled her weapon up, likely on the brink of firing. “You… what? A friend? What are you saying!”
I watched the being approach, more sure now that it was him. “Trust me. He’s been a lot of help.”
As she held her Tool at the ready, she grumbled, “I am not trusting that.”
I went forward to meet him, Sparky at my side as he addressed us. “I see your friend… survived, but… you departed. Why return?”
“We need your help again,” I replied. “We’re in The Fade. We need a way to get out. Your people must have a system on your ships to make this possible.”
He seemed to lower his head pensively. “Ahh… so long ago… nearly forgotten. My apologies, but… they will not want you to… obtain that technology. They will want you… absorbed, or killed.”
Kyleen snapped, “We will fight you!”
He replied, “Understandable… you fought well… perhaps you may succeed… in reaching a vessel. But you must be quick.”
I was hoping it wouldn’t be up to us, so I asked, “I don’t suppose you could help with that.”
He shook his head ponderously. “I resist… with all I can muster… every moment… but they would stop me from that. They are strong… somewhat distracted… even studying you… your successes… seeking solutions to overpower you.”
“Oh great… so this is like a game to them as they work to come up with better offense to win.”
“Precisely… so you should act soon… but be aware… the ships are infected… as I am. They will seek to… infect you, as well.”
I prayed that anything that could help us wasn’t infected. “All right… I guess we should see to it then. Thanks.”
“The best of luck… for you.” Something seemed to occur to him and he added, “One thing more. The fusion generator… in the center… should you succeed and depart… destroy it when leaving. The detonation… should end us… end our torment… this dreadful existence. Be sure to… put some distance between your ships… and the target.”
That was a grim request, but I understood. “I will. Now we’d better go. Come on Kyleen, and keep your boostpack fueled. This won’t be easy.”
She muttered to me as I produced my Multitool, “Tell me something new.”
I jetboosted up and got a fairly good look at the layout of the place, draped over much of it by those horrible bio-electric growths. Domes were placed around a large central complex, likely where the labs were located, and in the center was no doubt the fusion reactor which still must be powering the place, and possibly feeding this conjoined mess of electronic lifeforms. On the outskirts, and of course nearly opposite us, were square formations with shapes that should be spacecraft; Shuttles, Haulers, Scouts and perhaps a few Fighters. Any of them should have the systems we needed, but it would be a good jaunt to reach them.
We came down for a landing, which I looked forward to uncertainly with the strands of weird alien stuff covering everything. Just as I alighted, I felt something trying to grab my boots, and saw with a shock that tentacles of the stuff were wrapping around my feet. I shot them away with the Scatter Blaster, and cut the remainder off with my combat knife. “Damn it! Kyleen, be careful! Keep close watch of your boost gauge!”
“Watch your own, dolt! I need you alive!” she growled back. Probably because I had charmed her tender little heart.
This was terrible, as we jumped from growth to outgrowth, and had to deal with the tendrils seeking to grab us at each landing, and likely were also trying to merge with our suits, and then with us. That couldn’t happen, especially not to Kyleen. And then things had to get truly challenging as I could see creatures crawling over the mess covering everything, and could hear the whirr of approaching drones. There seemed to be much fewer this time, so “they” must have thrown almost everything they had at us the first time. A small bit of favor for our side. This would make for a great story, if it wasn’t so damned real.
“Take out the bad stuff for me! Head on a swivel and fangs out!” I cried. I caught Kyleen grumbling something in her native tongue as she had to focus on these ever worsening challenges. There was one more bright spot as I heard blaster fire to the side, and saw Sparky drifting dutifully towards us and taking out threats to the rear. “Way to go, Sparks! Give 'em hell!”
“This is my duty, and so much fun!” I heard him reply. What a strange, cool little Aeron.
It was a slog making progress, having to dispatch threats approaching us in our jumps, and then blasting where we were going to land on the way down. And with every landing, no matter how much fire we delivered to the spot, those horrible tentacles would be reaching for us. I dreaded to think of what would happen if they penetrated our suits.
Finally, I alighted on a dome near one of the landing pads. As I seared the tentacles off my boots with my Mining Laser, I decided it was time to try something dramatic. “Ky, hold your ears. This is gonna be loud.”
“What?” she asked as I launched myself up as high as I safely could. Picking out a craft-like shape nearby, I fired around the edges with the Plasma Launcher, steadying myself for the blast as I was still a little sensitive to loud noises. The grenades exploded with deafening booms, and the blasts cleared away large gaps in the electronic mess which engulfed the platform. Several rounds later, one of the ships was isolated from the morass. I hoped it made a difference. I did the same thing for a ship beside it, alighting just long enough to get some fuel back in my pack. “Take the closest one!” I shouted to my companion, who gave me some chastisement on the way in.
“You should have told me of your tactics before this!” she shouted as she alighted on the mess covering what must be a Fighter.
“Sorry… snap decision,” I replied, landing on the one a spot beyond as she growled back at me. She growled a lot for some reason.
I was growling myself as I landed on the strands of corruption, and to my dismay tentacles began wriggling for me as usual. I had hoped they would be neutralized if isolated from the mass. Oh well. I used the Mining Laser to clear some of the growths away, doing all I could to ignore the tentacles groping me, and damn it was nerve wracking. I had to deal with them every few seconds because the blasted things kept growing back somehow, making this an ever more frantic ordeal. If they won, I was worse than dead, but there was no way in hell we would be finished here.
At last, I saw cockpit and pushed my hands through the mess for the canopy release, grimacing as tendrils began wrapping around my arm. I found it, but it wouldn’t raise. Not only did the strands of mess hold it down tight, the batteries had probably drained long ago, so I would have to clear away everything and raise it by hand, while that same hideous mass was doing its best to absorb me. “Damn it to hell… leave me alone!” I yelled in frustration.
Then I heard Kyleen struggling. I looked over to her and cried out, as she was losing a fight with her own spaghetti from Hell. Damn, I completely forgot how weakened she was. “Nigel… I could use some… please…” she began, just as a strand of that mess wrapped around her throat and she began screaming. Oh dear God.
“Let her go, let her go!” I cried as I tore free of my own corruption, jumping to her side. As I began to cut away those awful tendrils with my laser, I exclaimed, “Sparky, for God’s sake help her!”
Something big appeared from nowhere and swatted me aside like a child. As I tumbled over the side of the engulfed craft, I struggled to get up and fight the thing off, afraid it was doing something terrible to her, when I saw that it was my friend. He pulled Kyleen free of the groping tendrils and threw her on his back, then said to me as she recovered, “See to your own ship… quickly now.”
I had to move as I was being engulfed myself, and burned away the strands of writhing hell which were wrapping around my legs. I almost waited too long, seeing bits of the suit skin eaten away. I jumped to the ship’s cockpit, searing off the tendrils trying to reform and hold the canopy shut. It took way too long as the cursed things kept regrowing. I wish I knew if the ship could withstand the Photon Grenades, but better safe than sorry. I could finally see a gap between the canopy and fuselage, and worked my hands underneath. With Suit assisting me with everything it had, I finally pried the canopy open and jumped inside. I focused on the nav systems, looking for whatever seemed different, and I couldn’t decide so I scavenged everything. Then I still had those god cursed tentacles to deal with which were snaking their way in. This was almost as horrible an ordeal as that demon god - perhaps worse, as I had someone in peril with me.
“Nigel, hurry!” she cried, making my stomach lurch. I was afraid she was in danger again, but I caught sight of her safely riding our friend’s back, though he was being swarmed by those same tendrils. She was looking nervous as he was half engulfed in the horrific mass, and she was doing her best to clear them off of him. As I began to scramble out, tentacles seized my hands so firmly I couldn’t raise my Multitool, and I was afraid I had made my last blunder. “Sparky!” I shouted.
“Hold still!” Kyleen called to me and fired her laser. Her aim was a little shaky from an unsteady perch, and a few beams seared me a couple of times, but I worked one arm free. From the other side, blaster fire streamed at me as Sparky appeared to lend support. “Thanks… thanks a lot!” I called to them as I managed to pull free and jumped out, my prize stashed away.
To my horror, the tentacles wrapped around my friend’s thick neck, and Kyleen went tumbling back with a cry as they puled him over. I jumped across to her ship and began working to cut him free, but he said to me, “Escape… flee. You must. I am… dead, now. Just… finish it… do it, please.”
I hated leaving him like this, but jumped over to help Kyleen get free. “I will, I promise,” I told him as I pulled her to her feet. I took a moment to gaze into those glistening blue eyes of hers, saying quietly, “Let’s go.”
It was harder getting out because there were still more drones to deal with, and they were more mobile than the lumbering beasts. But using Photon Grenades to clear out the worst dangers did the job, and finally we made it to the spot where our ships were waiting. I heard a stifled yelp, and turned to see Kyleen sprawled on the ground. The poor thing must be spent, at least I hoped that was all. I hurried back to her, grabbing her up as she panted, “I… can—”
“No you can’t,” I said over her, hauling her over to her ship. I opened the canopy and plopped her down in the seat, looking her over carefully just in case something was trying to infect her. “Are you okay?”
It took her a moment to catch her breath, but she gasped, “Yehh…”
“Good girl. Follow me,” I told her, then rushed over to my own ship. “Sparky! Time to go!”
“Coming, coming,” he called to me. He was a bit too far away, and blaster fire was streaking towards us, so he had to suffer through another grab and dash with him under my arms. A few moments later we lifted into the sky. As I began to depart, I remembered a promise I made. When we were a good ten kilometers off or so, I rotated, pointing my nose at the center of the complex, and fired a Ballista, then another as ground fire came towards us. “Sorry,” I murmured as the reactor detonated. The first shot must have set it off, and the blazing mushroom cloud was beautiful, and terrible. It was so potent, I could feel Star Sword lifted by the blast wave. I suppose this was an act of mercy, but it still ached in my gut. I hoped they finally had their peace.
“Nigel? What will we do?” Kyleen called to me.
I heaved a sigh, not answering right away. “Let me just… collect for a minute.”
“Are you… troubled over what you did? He is at rest, now.” She added softly, “It is what he wanted.”
“Yeah… I know. But… whatever they were before they did… whatever it was, I can’t believe they deserved all… that,” I finished in a whisper. I didn’t want to watch the fiery cloud anymore, didn’t want to think about it, and muttered, “All right… follow me.” As I turned to go in a heading away from the conflagration, the ruddy apocalyptic glow still lit the world below us.
We finally landed on the other side of the planet, and settled down in a little valley dotted with those purple crystal growths. We kept our helmets on as I talked things over with Kyleen, as the thought of a corrupted biome made me nervous. I brought out my components from the one ship, so I compared mine to hers to see which ones were necessary. I suppose I didn’t need to worry too much about identifying them, as we both had one unit with the nomenclature Guidance Module X, and the others matched up as well. I remarked, “Let’s hope these install as easily as standard units.”
“Install, likely,” she said back. “Use… we shall see.”
I hesitated when I looked at her, and noticed that she came up in my HUD as Kailene. I was sure that her name was spelled Kyleen. Was my memory that sketchy, or had things shifted after a few Resets? “What?” she asked.
“You’re so cute,” I replied deflectively, which she huffed at.
She was right, as the units seemed to install without any fuss, but when we lifted off into space, they didn’t register, and I couldn’t lock onto any stars outside The Fade. Oh, this was great. Kailene grumbled to me, “It isn’t working - and don’t you dare leave me!”
“I’m in the same fix you are, so I’m not going anywhere,” I informed her, which I doubt I would have the same courtesy if things had gone well. “Let’s land - again - and see if we can get these darn things to work.”
“This is ridiculous,” she grumbled, but she had little choice but to follow me back down.
Back on the planet’s surface, I was still wondering just what to do, and she echoed my thoughts as we stood together. “So? What is your solution?”
That was a great question. I wasn’t a coder, at least not competent enough to write system drivers. Suit had managed to hack security systems before, but I had no idea if she could either. However, Sparky had worked his magic on my scanners. I wondered what Kailene would make of this as I nodded to him. “He might be able to get them to talk to our nav systems. What do you say, pal?”
He tiled at me in curiosity. “Say? I say that I will make the attempt—”
“That thing in my…?” Kailene began, then snapped, “No! Absolutely no.”
I folded my arms at her. “Do you want to stay here and try to figure it out yourself?”
She glared at me. “You wouldn’t dare to!”
This was a good opportunity to settle something. “I won’t, I promise. But you have to promise not to leave me.”
“Kah… why are you so stubborn!” she snarked back. “I have business which is none of yours. When we are done… we are done.”
“No, hold on now. You sounded remotely interested in me when we first met.”
“When we first…?” She then coughed at me. “I was being polite.”
“I’d appreciate it if you’d keep being polite. After all, I saved your life.” I heard a whir at my shoulder, adding, “Well, Sparky did most of the work, but I helped.”
“I… owe you, truly, but…” she grumbled at me, then was silent for a time. “Why do you insist on this?”
I decided to be honest, at least somewhat. “I’m on a mission of my own. I want to understand this universe - and ATLAS. I want to know what the deal is with it.”
She muttered spitefully, “That thing… it exists only to cause trouble. It destroys people, utterly.” She stood there for a moment, pondering me. “I have heard of you. Running around randomly and causing disturbances everywhere you go, for no clear reason.”
“I mean well, though,” I told her, “and I helped a lot of people.”
“That is mostly true…” She pondered me some more. “But why become entangled with ATLAS? That can only cause trouble, and perhaps more than for you.”
“Well, you don’t have to be a part of that.” I wondered how much more honest to be with her. “But I need help. I’m at a wall, and I could use someone to help unravel the mysteries of Euclid. Like… Resets. Forcing civilization to the bare minimum. Planets being ravaged by freak storms that have to be hurting their ecosystems. Lord, there are so many things wrong with this universe! Someone needs to find answers to all this, and I’m afraid I’m the only one trying.”
She laughed at me, which I didn’t care for, then puffed a breath. “You ask impossible questions. This is a fool’s quest.”
I stared back at her. “Someone has to be foolish enough to do it.”
She made a face at me, but I didn’t get the response I wanted. “Then I cannot help you. At the least, not for some… a long time. If ever.”
I had little hope for a favorable reply, but asked, “What if I helped you?”
“No!” she snapped, then went on more evenly, “You cannot. Go your own way. Take your one memory of this and be content with it.”
I shook my head. “No, that’s not good enough.”
She threw her hands in the air in exasperation. “Why are you like this!”
I kept staring at her adamantly. “You said it yourself, I’m stubborn. Sparky? See if you can manage to get those new guidance parts to work with my nav systems.”
“I will do my best to accomplish your task,” he buzzed.
