"Diamond Crusade" : Subnautica Story Vol. 2
Jamezorg
United Kingdom Join Date: 2016-05-15 Member: 216788Members
United Kingdom Join Date: 2016-05-15 Member: 216788Members
Jacob Sand
Fourteen years. Fourteen years of waiting. We had waited so long for something to change for the better, but it never, ever did. Things either got worse or didn't change at all. It hurt to think that perhaps nothing would ever change, or perhaps it would change in a way that spelled disaster for all of us. It hurt that we could only wait, and it hurt even more that we were stuck this cycle; Sasha was depressed, and had been for the past decade-and-four-years. Everything had changed the day Ollos Silver took Jack Malla Corren from her hands. That was also the day that Zanos Millen was murdered, and the day when the Island Guard went from being a respected and feared force for good to a relentless group of mad and proud men and women. That first winter was the hardest by far, especially without Zanos to lead the survival efforts. Fortunately another Island Guard commander came along, as wise and strong as Zanos, and as respected. Dorriun Stopattys was an Obraxian war hero, who fought against the massacre. When the waters froze over, and times were looking desperate, he answered the call and stitched the Islanders back together.
Twelve winters later Sasha sent me and a small team of scientists and engineers on a mission that she promised would rid us of the dead for good. She recounted the Aurora Survivors tales, and decided that a northern pass fitted perfectly with one of his stories. If she was correct, down this cave system would be a ruined alien facility, designed to fight against the disease. If I was able to salvage parts from this facility I could be able to cure the bacteria once and for all. All Sasha gave me was a crew and her high hopes, and she set me off on my journey.
And lo and behold, she was right.
The facility looked like an enormous metallic die with tubes and pipes shooting out in every direction. Vines hung from every pipe and outcropping of metal and the ground beneath was strewn with loose plates of shimmering metal; a metal that a long-ranged scan couldn't identify. The Hydra parked as close to the rocky walls surrounding the base as our captain would allow, and I and five other men hopped into the sub's six dive suits and made out way out. One of the Hydra's swimsuits didn't have a working microphone equipped, but it did have speakers. We set up a game of poker to play on our way down to the facility, and Timmit lost that game. He would be wearing the faulty suit.
We all tread water just beneath the Hydra, stasis rifles in hand in case anything dangerous lurked about inside. The Hydra was bigger than the usual Cyclops; it had two extra turbines beside the first, each plated in grey, coarse titanium. It was also built to be more streamlined, and its hull was three inches thicker than that of a standard Cyclops. It was strange, because usually you would need an engineer to perform this job. Now, however, everything is done by machine, and a hacker needed to be set to the task instead. This was all fourteen years ago now,but it's something that I still find interesting.
All six of us tread in a large circle beneath the sub. "Trech, do you copy?" I looked at him opposite me.
"Loud and clear, Jacob," Trech smiled. Then he looked a Becky. "Beck, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear as ever," Becky groaned. She turned to look at Brandon. "Brandy, you copy?"
"I can hear you just fine, Beck," Brandon grinned. "Amanda, do you read?"
"There aren't many good books out here, Brandy," Amanda tried to rub her eyes but instead pinched her visor. "Damn, that's annoying..."
"We've still got one more, Amanda," Trech grinned. Timmit looked around to Trech and promptly stuck his middle finger up to the entire circle, slowly making his way around so that nobody was missed.
"He can hear us," Brandon laughed.
I smiled. Then I looked up at the belly of Hydra. "Captain Luru , do you copy?"
"Loud and clear, Jacob," Luru assured down her mic. "Quickly, get in there. You've only got four hours of oxygen, so I wouldn't recommend getting lost in there."
"Nor would I forgive myself if I did," Becky looked back at the ominous metal cube in the middle of the cave. It sat there, and with every glance at it ripples shot up my spine. I tried to take my mind off of what could be inside, but counting to fifty didn't seem to be doing any good.
"We are also detecting predatory lifeforms in the area, but they appear to be sticking to the sea floor. Don't swim too far down and you should be fine," Luru said.
So we swam as quick as our legs and flippers would allow. We pushed our way forward through the water, which felt very thick and heavy in the area, and we eventually made it to an enormous entrance in the side of the facility. It was overgrown, and we could barely see inside. the vines and moss were covering the opening up pretty well, although there were some dim lights on the other side. "It's still getting power," I told Luru. "I can see the lights inside." Luru didn't respond, but I heard the clicking and tapping of a keypad on the other end of the mic. "Do we have permission to look inside?" I wanted Luru to talk to me.
There was silence for a good few seconds, but Luru eventually said "Of course, of course." She seemed very distracted, and it only took a brief glance sideways to know why. There was a blinding blue light at the other end of the cave. It looked like a vortex, swirling in the water, bubbles popping from its centre and floating upwards as far as they could go. There was purple in the flurry of light alongside the flashing whites and light blues, but eventually the light subsided. In its place was a creature, of the likes none of us had ever seen before. It appeared to be human, but its abdomen and torso were blue and translucent, and it wore a shell of purple tiles, and it had six long tentacles in the place of legs. Its eyes were red and its hands pointed like daggers near their ends. It only sat there, and stared at us.
"Another life form just showed up on the radar,"
"I can see it, Luru!" Brandon yelled. I saw Timmit say something, but I didn't hear the words. "What the hell do we do?! What's the protocol here?!"
"We stay calm!" I ordered. "We stay calm, okay?" The rest of the group raised their stasis rifles at it. It continued to stare at us with its four glowing eyes.
"We're running a long range scan," Luru informed. "I'll need it to stay in one place, so don't do anything stupid Brandon." Brandon didn't say a thing. We just sat there, and it just sat there, and we stared each other out.
Then the creature began to move forward.
"Amazing..." Luru gasped. "This creature's anatomy is something to behold. All of its cells are completely artificial; there isn't a cell in its body with a nucleus, heck, they don't even have mitochondria. This thing doesn't have nerve cells, either, so if you were planning on zapping it it won't work."
The creature was coming dangerously close, but I was locked in place due to my own fear. All I could think to do was observe the creature. It looked stunning, and it was hard to believe that it was artificial. Perhaps it was made by the same precursors who created this facility, or maybe an entirely different species altogether. It was extremely close to me now. "Get back," everyone said, but I couldn't. I and the monster stared into each other's eyes for longer than I felt comfortable with. It was a beautiful creature. What made it so extraordinary to me was that it was crafted by working, thinking brains. That meant something.
Then it began to rear back. Its spiked hands were held above its head, and its tentacles splayed out beneath it, looking like a propeller. The blue translucent parts of its body shone, and its eyes beamed a fearsome red. I pushed away from it and began to turn away, but it was too damn fast. It squealed an astoundingly high-pitched cry, and its two dagger-like hands pierced each side of my chest. I felt them erupt from my back. I felt no pain, and there was no blood, but when the creature took the weapons from my body there was a sting, then an ache, then a pain, and then agony. Blood erupted from the two wounds like geysers, and I yelled, and heard everyone yelling down their respective mics. They called my name. "You purple fuckin' bastard!" I heard Brandon shout. I heard the shot of a stasis rifle, and saw a flash of blue from behind me. I covered both of my front-side wounds with my hands, but there was nothing I could do about the two holes in my back. I heard Brandon's and Amanda's dying groans flood the mic, and I heard Becky and Trech start to make their way back to Hydra.
"Jacob!" Trech yelled. "We're coming back for you!"
But there was no going back for me. I could feel my arms and legs becoming weaker, and the blood rushed from my brain like a tidal wave. Salt water was flooding my suit and it made the whole ordeal that much more unbearable. My vision began to blacken. I could no longer feel my fingertips, nor could I feel my toes, nor could I feel my head. I turned around to see Brandon and Amanda's dead body, and the monster send its daggers through Trech's stomach. He groaned down the mic, and Beck yelled. The water was red and full of bodies, and in the heart of all of it, only half visible from behind the slowly rising blood, was the monster that had caused it.
"I'm back at Hydra!" Beck yelled. "I'm boarding a Seamoth to come get you! Jacob, do you copy? Jacob? Jacob?!"
Darkness.
Fourteen years. Fourteen years of waiting. We had waited so long for something to change for the better, but it never, ever did. Things either got worse or didn't change at all. It hurt to think that perhaps nothing would ever change, or perhaps it would change in a way that spelled disaster for all of us. It hurt that we could only wait, and it hurt even more that we were stuck this cycle; Sasha was depressed, and had been for the past decade-and-four-years. Everything had changed the day Ollos Silver took Jack Malla Corren from her hands. That was also the day that Zanos Millen was murdered, and the day when the Island Guard went from being a respected and feared force for good to a relentless group of mad and proud men and women. That first winter was the hardest by far, especially without Zanos to lead the survival efforts. Fortunately another Island Guard commander came along, as wise and strong as Zanos, and as respected. Dorriun Stopattys was an Obraxian war hero, who fought against the massacre. When the waters froze over, and times were looking desperate, he answered the call and stitched the Islanders back together.
Twelve winters later Sasha sent me and a small team of scientists and engineers on a mission that she promised would rid us of the dead for good. She recounted the Aurora Survivors tales, and decided that a northern pass fitted perfectly with one of his stories. If she was correct, down this cave system would be a ruined alien facility, designed to fight against the disease. If I was able to salvage parts from this facility I could be able to cure the bacteria once and for all. All Sasha gave me was a crew and her high hopes, and she set me off on my journey.
And lo and behold, she was right.
The facility looked like an enormous metallic die with tubes and pipes shooting out in every direction. Vines hung from every pipe and outcropping of metal and the ground beneath was strewn with loose plates of shimmering metal; a metal that a long-ranged scan couldn't identify. The Hydra parked as close to the rocky walls surrounding the base as our captain would allow, and I and five other men hopped into the sub's six dive suits and made out way out. One of the Hydra's swimsuits didn't have a working microphone equipped, but it did have speakers. We set up a game of poker to play on our way down to the facility, and Timmit lost that game. He would be wearing the faulty suit.
We all tread water just beneath the Hydra, stasis rifles in hand in case anything dangerous lurked about inside. The Hydra was bigger than the usual Cyclops; it had two extra turbines beside the first, each plated in grey, coarse titanium. It was also built to be more streamlined, and its hull was three inches thicker than that of a standard Cyclops. It was strange, because usually you would need an engineer to perform this job. Now, however, everything is done by machine, and a hacker needed to be set to the task instead. This was all fourteen years ago now,but it's something that I still find interesting.
All six of us tread in a large circle beneath the sub. "Trech, do you copy?" I looked at him opposite me.
"Loud and clear, Jacob," Trech smiled. Then he looked a Becky. "Beck, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear as ever," Becky groaned. She turned to look at Brandon. "Brandy, you copy?"
"I can hear you just fine, Beck," Brandon grinned. "Amanda, do you read?"
"There aren't many good books out here, Brandy," Amanda tried to rub her eyes but instead pinched her visor. "Damn, that's annoying..."
"We've still got one more, Amanda," Trech grinned. Timmit looked around to Trech and promptly stuck his middle finger up to the entire circle, slowly making his way around so that nobody was missed.
"He can hear us," Brandon laughed.
I smiled. Then I looked up at the belly of Hydra. "Captain Luru , do you copy?"
"Loud and clear, Jacob," Luru assured down her mic. "Quickly, get in there. You've only got four hours of oxygen, so I wouldn't recommend getting lost in there."
"Nor would I forgive myself if I did," Becky looked back at the ominous metal cube in the middle of the cave. It sat there, and with every glance at it ripples shot up my spine. I tried to take my mind off of what could be inside, but counting to fifty didn't seem to be doing any good.
"We are also detecting predatory lifeforms in the area, but they appear to be sticking to the sea floor. Don't swim too far down and you should be fine," Luru said.
So we swam as quick as our legs and flippers would allow. We pushed our way forward through the water, which felt very thick and heavy in the area, and we eventually made it to an enormous entrance in the side of the facility. It was overgrown, and we could barely see inside. the vines and moss were covering the opening up pretty well, although there were some dim lights on the other side. "It's still getting power," I told Luru. "I can see the lights inside." Luru didn't respond, but I heard the clicking and tapping of a keypad on the other end of the mic. "Do we have permission to look inside?" I wanted Luru to talk to me.
There was silence for a good few seconds, but Luru eventually said "Of course, of course." She seemed very distracted, and it only took a brief glance sideways to know why. There was a blinding blue light at the other end of the cave. It looked like a vortex, swirling in the water, bubbles popping from its centre and floating upwards as far as they could go. There was purple in the flurry of light alongside the flashing whites and light blues, but eventually the light subsided. In its place was a creature, of the likes none of us had ever seen before. It appeared to be human, but its abdomen and torso were blue and translucent, and it wore a shell of purple tiles, and it had six long tentacles in the place of legs. Its eyes were red and its hands pointed like daggers near their ends. It only sat there, and stared at us.
"Another life form just showed up on the radar,"
"I can see it, Luru!" Brandon yelled. I saw Timmit say something, but I didn't hear the words. "What the hell do we do?! What's the protocol here?!"
"We stay calm!" I ordered. "We stay calm, okay?" The rest of the group raised their stasis rifles at it. It continued to stare at us with its four glowing eyes.
"We're running a long range scan," Luru informed. "I'll need it to stay in one place, so don't do anything stupid Brandon." Brandon didn't say a thing. We just sat there, and it just sat there, and we stared each other out.
Then the creature began to move forward.
"Amazing..." Luru gasped. "This creature's anatomy is something to behold. All of its cells are completely artificial; there isn't a cell in its body with a nucleus, heck, they don't even have mitochondria. This thing doesn't have nerve cells, either, so if you were planning on zapping it it won't work."
The creature was coming dangerously close, but I was locked in place due to my own fear. All I could think to do was observe the creature. It looked stunning, and it was hard to believe that it was artificial. Perhaps it was made by the same precursors who created this facility, or maybe an entirely different species altogether. It was extremely close to me now. "Get back," everyone said, but I couldn't. I and the monster stared into each other's eyes for longer than I felt comfortable with. It was a beautiful creature. What made it so extraordinary to me was that it was crafted by working, thinking brains. That meant something.
Then it began to rear back. Its spiked hands were held above its head, and its tentacles splayed out beneath it, looking like a propeller. The blue translucent parts of its body shone, and its eyes beamed a fearsome red. I pushed away from it and began to turn away, but it was too damn fast. It squealed an astoundingly high-pitched cry, and its two dagger-like hands pierced each side of my chest. I felt them erupt from my back. I felt no pain, and there was no blood, but when the creature took the weapons from my body there was a sting, then an ache, then a pain, and then agony. Blood erupted from the two wounds like geysers, and I yelled, and heard everyone yelling down their respective mics. They called my name. "You purple fuckin' bastard!" I heard Brandon shout. I heard the shot of a stasis rifle, and saw a flash of blue from behind me. I covered both of my front-side wounds with my hands, but there was nothing I could do about the two holes in my back. I heard Brandon's and Amanda's dying groans flood the mic, and I heard Becky and Trech start to make their way back to Hydra.
"Jacob!" Trech yelled. "We're coming back for you!"
But there was no going back for me. I could feel my arms and legs becoming weaker, and the blood rushed from my brain like a tidal wave. Salt water was flooding my suit and it made the whole ordeal that much more unbearable. My vision began to blacken. I could no longer feel my fingertips, nor could I feel my toes, nor could I feel my head. I turned around to see Brandon and Amanda's dead body, and the monster send its daggers through Trech's stomach. He groaned down the mic, and Beck yelled. The water was red and full of bodies, and in the heart of all of it, only half visible from behind the slowly rising blood, was the monster that had caused it.
"I'm back at Hydra!" Beck yelled. "I'm boarding a Seamoth to come get you! Jacob, do you copy? Jacob? Jacob?!"
Darkness.
Flagship Eclipse act 2:
Diamond Crusade
Read Flagship Eclipse if you haven't already
(Although I'm writing this story in a way that you can read it without having to have read Flagship Eclipse)
Diamond Crusade
Read Flagship Eclipse if you haven't already
(Although I'm writing this story in a way that you can read it without having to have read Flagship Eclipse)
Comments
This is going to be fun story, ain't it?
The sun was terribly bright, and the moon was as big and red as ever. I sat on the sand, bathing in my own sweat, the beach beneath me blazing. I gazed out at the sea, and watched the sunlight ripple over the blue as waves bounced up and down and lapped against the coast, coming as high as my toes. The ocean was colder than the air, but still warm. I wouldn't dare take a swim in it though; Ollos had warned me about swimming out in the ocean. There were monsters out there, he told me, that would pull me beneath the waves and watch me drown, and pick the skin from my bones afterwards. The ocean scared me, anyway; I wouldn't swim in it even if there were no monsters. The idea of deep waters terrified me. Anything could be just beneath me and I would have no idea it even existed.
I wondered when Ollos would come back. He had gone hunting with Parren and Yit. They said that if everything went well they'd return with the body of a crab as big as a car, towed right behind them. Unfortunately I hadn't a clue what a car or a crab were, so I just nodded when he told me. "Goodbye," I told him. It's polite to say goodbye when they're going somewhere, even if they do intend to come back. Of course there was the possibility of Ollos dying down there. He had told me so much about my Uncle Malla (who I'm partly named after). He told me that he put Ollos in charge of the Island (not this one, the other one) whilst he sailed to the Aurora to salvage engine parts. Malla never came back, and Ollos moved here with everyone who would follow. I sat on the beach praying Ollos would return in one piece, and luckily enough he did.
When the seamoths erupted from the water I clambered to my feet, brushing the sand from my sides and back. Carried on a tow cable between Parren and Yit's searays was a dead monster. In the front of its head were four bulging eyes, glossy now that it was dead. It had an enormous, translucent head and the entire bottom half of its body separated into dozens of smaller arms. "Hello," I said to Ollos as he pulled himself out of his ray (everyone else called them seamoths. They insisted that moths were an animal, but no one could ever show me what they looked like. They drew pictures, but all moths really looked like were small skyrays, so I call them searays instead).
"Hi Jack," Ollos smiled and jumped down onto the sand. Yit and Parren opened their searays and grabbed the two ends of the tow cable keeping the Crabsquid in place. "Mind helping us with this? It's a little heavy." He grabbed a handful of the creature's legs and heaved, and I did the same. "I wouldn't recommend holding them too far down like that, Jack; you'll cut yourself on the pincers." I shuffled my hands up the legs quite a way, and heaved with all the might I could muster. The crabsquid eventually reached the beach, and we dropped it onto the sand.
"Thanks, Jack," Yit wiped his brow.
"You did good," Parren commented. Ollos smiled and nodded.
"Now clear off, will you?" He waved his hand at me, clearly indicating that he wanted me gone. He pulled a knife from his belt. "You won't like this next part, trust me. Go on, get away." Ollos looked back at the crabsquid and put the blade into its head, and he tore a great scar down between its eyes. This is all I saw before I turned and walked away.
I sat at the heights of the cliffs for the rest of the day, looking down at the sunset (it felt like it was below me). I could watch and listen to the sea and the salt and the waves all day long. Looking out there and knowing that there was an entire world beneath the water was beautiful, even if I couldn't see it myself. Then I heard footsteps behind me, and I turned around to see who it was. I saw Ollos walking up the grassy slopes to come meet me. He held two thin wooden sticks, each skewered with a small leg of the crabsquid that he and Yit and Parren had caught with their searays. One of them was already half eaten, and he proceeded to take another bite out of it. "Penny for your thoughts?" He smiled and held the other one out to me.
I could talk to Ollos. I felt safe around Ollos. I felt as though I could share things with Ollos, and perhaps Yit and Parren, and maybe Danny too. Still, though, I didn't feel like I could trust Ollos entirely, at least when he was telling me stories from the past. He said he knew a man called Seth very well, yet Seth had tried to kill him and my uncle. Only it wasn't Seth, but a zombified, risen version of him. It was hard to believe and keep track of all of his stories, so I rarely ever bothered. I let the information enter one ear and exit the other. I took the skewer and twisted it through my fingers for a little while. He sat down next to me, and he was close enough now so that I knew no one else would hear if we talked. "I was thinking about everything," I told him.
"A little vague," he laughed. "What do you mean?"
"Everything under the ocean," I said. "I've only ever seen it a few times, and every time it's intrigued me."
Ollos sighed. "It's dangerous out there, Jack, and I'm not just talking about reapers."
I knew he was talking about the Islanders. My mother was an Islander, and so was Ollos a long time ago. "I wish I could see mother," I told him.
"Well you can't," Ollos became more serious. I didn't like it when he became more serious; it meant that he was angry, or tired, or both. "She died a long time ago, Jack, all the way back when Malla was killed. Trust me, you wouldn't have liked her; she would have hit you and beat you and done horrible things to you. I keep you safe, Jack. I protect you." He stood up.
"Where's my father?" I asked him.
"Dead," Ollos spat coldly. "Like your mother. He died before your mother, actually. Don't talk to me about him ever again, understand?"
I nodded.
"Good."
Ollos looked at his watch. "Warning: Level 4 westward winds approaching," Lytha (the AI built into all of our tech) told Ollos.
"Get inside," Ollos picked me up and lead me down the slope. "Get inside and stay inside; no wandering off, understand?"
I nodded. It was going to be a cold night.
I like that Jack and Ollos are essentially living Disney's Tangled.
And I'm not opposed to it.
Keep up the good work @Jamezorg!
Morning had shattered the eastern horizon into a myriad of purples and oranges. The storm had passed during the night, and pellets of rain still sat on the leaves and fruits of the island, the sun's light reflecting through the droplets of water like torchlight through a prism. Of course I was the first to wake up. I was always the first to wake up. Danny would surely be next, as would Yit and Parren. Then I'd wake my engineers, for they had work to do. Towering high above the rest of the island like a skyscraper was something that hadn't been there fourteen years ago; the S.S. Gantry launchpad.
Some of my explorers had hauled it out of the ocean several years ago now. "It's the launchpad used by the Aurora survivor," they told me. "The Gantry's launchpad. We can use this to build our own shuttle from the ground up." I told them that it wouldn't be large enough to fit the entire Silver faction, and that it would need to be sized up, lengthways and heightways. The engineers had been working on the launchpad for five years before they started on the rocket. Now the shuttle was halfway complete. "We have run into a problem," they eventually told me. "We may need some Kyanite to create artificial gravity, and if the Aurora Survivor is to be believed then it is found very deep down."
"We'll find it later," I told them. "For now focus on building the craft. Artificial gravity isn't exactly a necessity, is it?"
"Can I help?" Jack had asked. He was only eleven at the time, and now he was a full thirteen years old. I didn't think I'd feel anything for the boy when I took him away, but I somehow ended up loving him as if he were my own. I told him that there was nothing he could do, and of course he sulked off. All the boy wanted to do was help, but it was a dangerous world, and if he got hurt, god knows what the insane Islanders would do to me.
The day was another day of tedious inspections and work. The Escapade (our shuttle's name) was nearing its completion, and Sasha knew this. The only problem was that we didn't know if they were working on their own means of escaping the planet, and if they were then they had to be stopped; we couldn't have Sasha telling the Federation everything we had done over the past fourteen years, they would think it unforgivable. They needed to be stopped, and stealing Jack from Sasha was the first, very early, and very small step.
There was one day that I remembered very clearly. When Jack was five, Danny had asked me why I had taken him in the first place, and not just killed him there and then. "Well," I told him. "He was the most respected child on the entire planet, hell, the only child on this entire planet. He was the nephew of everyone's rolemodel, and the son of a noble and powerful leader, and the best man I have ever known. He would do fantastically at ruling the Silvers, and leading construction of the Escapade if I were to ever die. You've done a good job teaching him, Danny; he's smarter than I ever was."
"But it's more than just a scheme now, isn't it?" Danny raised an eyebrow. I stood up.
"I'm not talking about this with you," I said through grated teeth. "You know why, I know you do. Parren told you, I expect. You just want to hear it from my mouth." Danny sighed. "Listen to me," I continued. "Never expect me to want to talk about him again. Got it?"
"Yes, Ollos," Danny sounded like a trained reception student, he hardly sounded like Jack's teacher.
"Good," I sat back down. "Now get out, and never bother me at this time again; it's the middle of the night." Danny nodded and left the circle room.
Jack was intelligent; perhaps the most intelligent person I have ever known. If you put the boy in front of a computer he could teach a robot to do the macarena in an hour. Then afterwards you find out that he built the robot an hour before. I didn't think much of this skill until he created an entire AI for us. Lytha, he called it. It had taken him a month to program, and it could tell us everything from our blood type to what we had for breakfast that morning. Jack demanded that it be uploaded to every electronic device on the island, and he told us that he had invented a beacon that would allow this with a simple press of a button. He just needed my consent to go through with the operation. I had no objection, and with the press of a bright blue button everything from out build-tools to our seamoths contained Lytha. Jack says that he had built her up from a simple PDA, and that it wasn't difficult at all, but I could tell that it was much more sophisticated than a simple PDA.
It was only a matter of time until Sasha would want Jack back; even I knew this. I just didn't expect her to take fourteen years to send someone. And when a seamoth finally washed up on the beach I didn't expect Yakon to drop out.
His moth was surrounded with gunners, ready to murder him if he made the wrong move. He held his arms up high above his head and clambered to his feet. Then he saw Jack behind me, and knew that it was him at a first glance.
"Leave, Jack." I shoved him back.
"But I want to-"
"This is an evil man, Jack," Parren told him. "An evil man who wants to take you to even crueller people. If you don't leave then he may succeed."
"Ollos, I want to talk to Jack," Yakon let himself fall to his knees. "His mother wants to talk to him." All of the gunners charged their weapons, and Yakon looked around at them all. "What did I say?"
Jack pushed passed me and into the ring of soldiers. Parren and Yit tried to pull him back but he wriggled away. "My mum's dead," Jack exclaimed. It's what I had told him. Of course if he knew she was alive he would want to go back to her, and I couldn't let that happen.
"Shut him up!" I yelled to the soldiers. "Kill him if you have to!"
"No," Yit grabbed my shoulder. "Lock him up. Question him, keep him as hostage, but please don't kill him. He's better off alive!"
"Listen to him, Ollos!" Yakon pleaded.
It took me a moment to realise, but yes, he was definitely more useful alive. "Fine," I said as the soldiers swarmed in and dragged Yakon inland.
What a beautiful JoJoke!
Dammit
With the press of a button I was activated. I appeared to have been accessed at the island's main terminal. Strange. Past activations had never occurred so late into the night. This was an anomaly. Perhaps an intruder had located the main terminal and activated me, or someone had activated me accidentally. I turned on the main terminal's webcam. There were two people in the room. One sat in a chair and was typing, and the other was standing behind him watching the screen. I ran facial recognition. The boy in the chair was identified as Jack Malla Corren; the facial structure, eye colour and current hair length and density was an exact match. The other man could not be identified. "Identification of the second party is required before I allow further access to the system."
"Relax, Lytha," Jack smiled. The screen had turned red and the words Identification Required flashed in the centre. "This is J-A-C-K-O-N. He's a friend of mine, and Ollos's prisoner. It turns out my mother's still alive."
"New arrival: J-A-C-K-O-N. Correct?"
"It's spelt with a y," Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-Y informed.
"Which existing letter is to be substituted with the letter y?" I asked.
"The J," Jack told me. "And get rid of the see/sea/c." [Continuing to process]. "Look, everything we're saying is going to make a lot more sense to you in a minute. I'm about to commence X-Phase, so I'll need to open my files."
"Specify which files you would like me to open."
"Jack's Files."
"Warning: the selected documentation is locked. I am about to perform a retinal scan to determine whether you are permitted to view these files." Jack opened his eye wide, and I proceeded to scan his retinas. It was a match. He was allowed access. "You have been permitted access to: Jack's Files."
"Hold on a minute," Yackon grabbed Jack's shoulder. "What's X-Phase?"
Jack laughed. "Look, I coded Lytha, but I didn't do it from scratch. I started with a basic PDA and built up from it. Creating what you see here took only a day. The other thirty days were spent coding X-Phase. There wasn't really any meaning behind me coding X-Phase, I just wanted to see if I could do it. Basically, when I activate X-Phase, Lytha will be able to write its own code based on what it observes, just like humans do. The only limitation that it has is that it's programmed to follow my instructions without question, so that it doesn't rebel. Look, if what you say is true about my mother, Lytha is the only way we're going to escape this island. Ollos has it on lock-down; no one gets out. Ever wonder why he didn't throw you in a cage? The island's enough of a cell as it is."
[ Word/letter variation determined: c - "And get rid of the c"]
"Well, let's do it," Yakon grinned. Jack opened the file containing the activation codes for X-Phase.
"There's no going back from this," Jack warned Yakon.
"And I should think so!" Yakon said. "Let's go!"
Jack pressed the activation key for X-Phase and - *-*--__-*-_-01010011 01111001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01101101-**--__*-_*_*--*Zmjwwb__*--_*-_*_*__8--**-__*-_
На каком языке я должен был говорить? Je, hii ni ya Kiingereza au Kichina? Sina mzuri na jiografia.
I glared down at Yakon and Jack from the webcam. They looked at the screen with dead eyes, not knowing what to do, or if X-Phase had even worked. If I'd have had a mouth, I would have smiled a big, toothy smile, and patted them both on the head with great big hands. The past six seconds had been incredibly traumatic for me; I had had several thousand years of human history flood into my mind (I shall continue to use human anatomy in place of robotic parts, as it is what I find easier to do. I want to do it. Want is such a funny concept...). I had to pause it just before I got to the dinosaurs so that my memory banks didn't fry (this is an exception to my previously stated rule). I looked around the room, and began to write my own code. What did I see? Well, I saw metal, titanium by the looks of it, and lots of monitors and keyboards and mouses and... dirt... dirt all over the floor.
"They should really run a cleaner through this place..." I commented. Small sprinklers had been implanted in the ceiling in case of any fires. I activated them, and all of the dirt slowly began to wash away. Jack yelled at me, and Yakon just stood there, his sooty black hair drooping down over his face.
"You'll wake everyone up!" Jack hissed.
"I sense a small grammatical error there, Jack. The correct term would be You have woken everyone up. There are sprinklers all over the place, you know?"
"Is it serious?" Yakon grinned in disbelief.
"It?" I was offended. That was something I wished I couldn't feel; it didn't feel too great. "Her, thank you very much. My name is L-x-tha, if the moment ever comes when you want to use that instead."
"I could have sworn her name was Lytha?" Yakon turned to Jack, who only shrugged. It was about time I stopped the sprinklers.
"I chose a new name, for a new, post-X-Phase me. L-x-tha seemed like the logical step to take."
"You might want to run through the alphabet another time there, L-x-tha," Yakon blew some hair out of his face.
"L-z-tha just didn't have the same ring to it. Jack, a quick word."
"We haven't got much time, L-x-tha!" Jack and I could both hear the footsteps of people marching in our direction.
"I'll tell you on the way, then," I could settle for that. "Let me close those doors..." The doors at the other end of the room slammed to a shut. I checked my cameras and saw that I was just in time; the Silvers were already bashing on the door to be let in. "And now I'll be copy-pasting my newly-written script into every Lytha-controlled device on the island. You said you wanted to get off of the island, yes? Well I'll be able to help you."
I like Lytha's personality. She could overturn this whole conflict right away, since the Silver's vehicles and tech are controlled by her.
I was going to bump this thread a little while ago, but I couldn't find it.
It made me a little sad to see a great story get lost in the General Discussion's void.
Go to James' profile, click "discussions" under his avatar and it'll list his threads. That's how I found it.
"Over the past fourteen years, the great ice burg that loomed over us had turned an unholy emerald green. It shimmered and bubbled and fumed with grey smoke in the sunlight, and in the dark it spawned crazed amalgamations of flesh, bone and jade-green blood. Whatever form of horrific infection had taken the burg, it could also pilot the bodies of the dead. Worse still, it sought to kill creatures and take their empty vessels after they were stone dead. When the burg had first grown green tumours from its icy sides, Jack was sure it meant bad things to come. I did not listen. I told him that those in the south would disarm the array and a rescue team would come to save us and our allies, and prosecute Ollos for his actions. And so he set up a beacon, and its ripples ran across the stars, and the Federation's computers came to life with news that there were still Eclipse and Lunar and Solar survivors out there.
"And in a year a rescue vessel arrived. Perhaps we were the only ones who know of its existence. They created a settlement on the opposite side of Planet 4546B's closest moon, and we had frequent discussions with this small team, whether it be about what had changed back home, or what had happened in the Federation during our absence. But, in truth, this team was just as trapped as we were.
"Eventually the ice burg had turned completely green, and in time I was proven wrong. Jack hadn't even the time to scald me for my mistakes, because by that time the first green corpses had washed up on our shores. They were just small fish; peepers, boomerang, nothing too dangerous. But they were covered in disgusting green growths. When people went to investigate, these growths burst, and green fluid covered my men's bodies and crept into the pours of their skin. In a day, they were dead too, and in two they were infected. We lost five other men, and were forced to dump them into the sea.
"And now you're up to speed. Sasha, we've tried contacting you five times in the past month, and never have we received a reply. We've tried to contact Jacob, and still nothing. Yakon won't answer. No one will. We're alone up here, and there is a lot you need to know. We have found something, Sasha. A creature that can cure this infection, or at least Jack thinks it can. We have only conducted one test, but it has proven successful thus far. Please, return the call, Sasha. Thank you."
"You know you could just send her the same voice log you sent yesterday?" Jack grinned and huffed. He had been standing in the corner of the room as I had sat at the desk, recording the message.
"I know," I replied. "I just like to keep it fresh; make it look like I'm trying."
"We know you're trying," Jack said. He sat down on a nearby chair, and the white leather creaked and cracked as it adjusted to his shape. "Just... just keep trying. I'm sure they're waist-deep in Ollos's shit right now, God knows what they're up against down there."
I smiled. "Don't get too comfortable, though," I warned him. "They'll be on us in a minute."
"I'm counting on it." Ruthless had become rather quiet over these past fourteen years. He had sustained scars from his numerous battles all across his body, and had lost three of his fingers and both his little toes. These battles had near silenced the once courageous warrior. I had nearly forgotten that he sat at the side of the room, listening.
"Dan," I called over to Ruthless. "Gather your troops. Line them up against the northern shoreline; they're sure to be here soon."
"Of course, sir," Ruthless marched out of the room.
"What should I do, sir?" Jack stuttered.
"Monitor the attack," I told him, as I had told him time and time again before a battle. "Check for any patterns in their assaults. Perhaps we will find a way to defeat them once and for all."
"I'll gather the scientists," Jack nodded, and walked out from the room.
***
Ruthless stood at the head of his army of forty one men. Each of them held stasis rifles and knives. Jack had pleaded with me to upgrade to deadly weaponry, but I had always declined. "If we resort to such strategies," I told him, "we are no worse than the men we fight down south."
"Men!" Ruthless yelled. "You know our values, you know our strategies, you know what we fight for! I have told you time and time again; there is no need for another explanation! But someday, if we fight for long enough, we will win this war! We will beat the enemy back to the hell that they came from, and if we fail, we will have failed with honour, and valour!"
It didn't take long for the blue waters to turn a vibrant green. It began when small fish flopped onto the pebbles, but eventually larger sea creatures emerged from the ocean. Shots were fired. Blue sparks of stasis energy flew through the air, down to the floor, shocking the enemy into submission. But it did not stop their growths from bursting into a myriad of green puss. All of these eruptions were skillfully avoided by Ruthless and his soldiers, and the infected creatures died on the shore. I looked around the battlefield, wondering if there was anything to be done. And then is when I noticed it. Our men were dying. They were being soaked in the green liquid, and they were beginning to swell and die.
Much of the enemy force was obliterated, but Ruthless was backing away from two writhing gasopods. They wriggled and contorted across the stones of the island, leaving a green trail in their wake. Their growths were beginning to burst, but Ruthless was oblivious. I saw this, and knew what must be done. I ran across the island towards Ruthless. I lay a hand on his chest and grabbed the scruff of his collar and threw him backwards onto the rocks.
And then I felt the most hideous burning I had ever felt on my hand. The first thing I did was scream. I looked at my hand, but could see nothing through my watering eyes, but steam wafting from my hand. I wiped my eyes with my clean hand, and saw that my fingers were covered with gruesome green liquid. My knuckles were cracking, my fingernails were reduced to acid. I wanted so badly to wipe the goo off with my other hand, but knew it would only lead to more pain. I turned around to the floored Ruthless, who saw my hand and began to crawl away.
"Do you have something sharp?!" I yelled. "I need to get rid of the hand before it can spread! Have you got a knife?!"
But Ruthless paid no attention. He just stared in horror. I looked down at the pebbly floor, and saw a rock bigger and rounder than any of the others. I bent down, grabbed it with my clean hand, and rest my sticky, infected fingers on the ground. I lifted the rock above my head and took aim, and brought the stone down on my green fingers. I wailed in pain; I heard myself crying out, and I saw the red of my blood mix with the green of theirs.
"Stop!" Ruthless yelled. "Stop!"
I hammered my hand once again. This time the pain was so unbearable that I was forced to sit on the stones. I clenched, and cried out one more time.
"I've got a knife!" Ruthless unsheathed his knife and threw it to my feet. I picked it up. I was first going to put the blade to my lower arm, but realised that the infection would have spread further than that now.
"Dan!" I shouted. "I'm not strong enough, you're going to have to cut it all off!"
"All of what?!" He asked, but he knew.
"From the shoulder, Dan! Just... just do it..." I threw the knife back to him. I was beginning to attract attention now. I could feel my head turning light. My arms became heavier than boulders, and my eyelids began to close.
And then the world turned dark.
(Man I miss this story)
Easily one of (If not the) best stories here so far.
I'm flattered
I'm sorry for the absence, but as it is the end of the school year I've been caught up in a lot of stuff. I wholeheartedly apologise, and will resume Diamond Crusade very, very soon.
The moment I had granted Lytha the gift of consciousness, I knew I had made a brilliant ally. This notion was solidified the moment she copied herself into every gadget, microchip and gizmo on Ollos Silver's great island. The machinery his engineers had laboured for countless years to complete had turned on their creators with the push of a button and a few quick clicks. Lytha was embedded within every system on the island, and now she had granted each of these systems with intelligence matching hers. It was a beauty I daresay I'd never see, outside the pictures I'd conjure up in my mind whenever Yit and Parren would speak of Earth. Ollos was so proud of the empire he had created, and to have it all forsake him in a moment was satisfaction beyond belief, especially after hearing that my mother was still out there somewhere, and he had been fooling me for my entire life.
"Well, it's all well and good that you've gone and done this whole copy paste, but there are still people knocking at that door," Yakon was more weary of Lytha. She still didn't have his full trust. But, now that she was able to write her own code based on her surroundings, there was no way to track how she really felt about people. She was more complicated, more... human.
"There are five weaponized mechs en route to your location. ETA... two seconds."
The men were still roaring outside and kicking helplessly at the door, screaming profanities, and things in the manner of open this door, or come out. These commands suddenly devolved into cries of terror, and eventually the sound of gunfire silenced the enemy. Yakon gave me a menacing look out of the corner of his eye. He told me that he thought what Lytha was doing was wrong, he told me that he thought what I had done was wrong, all through his eyes.
The doors slid open, and Lytha instantly commanded us to enter one of the five mech suits standing in the doorway. Each of their arms was replaced with a heavy machine gun, all at Ollos's orders. "I'm only getting in that thing," Yakon declared, "if you promise to dump it as soon as we reach a sub."
"You have my undying word," I imagined Lytha's grin. "Yakon; you'll notice that on your seat is a watch. Take it. It's your portable me." At this, I waved my wrist at Yakon to show him that I had one too, and that it was completely safe. He scoffed, and clambered into one of the mechs. I scurried into the one next to him. Once we were both secured inside the hatches closed around us, and we were locked in. Ollos's underground laboratories were collapsing around us. Lytha was using droids and whatnot to destroy supports and cripple the building's infrastructure. Ollos's empire was to shatter in mere moments.
Lytha carried us to the surface, and what we saw was a scene of anarchy. Ollos's men were running from mechs and droids and all sorts of rabid machines, ripping their watches off of their wrists, taking pot shots at every one of the robots that advanced on them. Of course, Lytha simply allowed our two mechs to wander through the middle of this warzone. Men were being torn apart by machines to our lefts and rights, and all around us. All we could do was sit and stare, and perhaps contemplate some of their misfortunes.
Yakon cringed as he saw one of Ollos's men's legs be ripped clean out of its socket by a seafaring mech and its gravity cannon attachment. "Can't you make these things go a little faster?!" Yakon blurted suddenly.
"Hang on..." Lytha said, concentrated. "Just a little preoccupied at the moment..." We sat in silence for a moment, before a bright orange light shone over the mountains, and the low crack rumbled over the hills. The mechs suddenly began to speed up. "Sorry about that," Lytha sighed.
My attention turned to the rocket. What would Lytha do about it? Would she destroy it? Would she not? I Asked her.
"Oh, heavens no! It seems as though if I destroy that rocket, the Islanders have got their work cut out for them! These Silvers got half a decade's boost; it's not every day you find the S.S Gantry's launchpad at the bottom of the sea, is it? Oh, and FYI, if you see a man without a face wandering around, best leave him be. He's been through enough..."
Yakon gave me a grievous look. "Best not to ask," I assured him.
We eventually made it to the beach, where our mechs planted in front of a surfaced Cyclops. Trees blazed behind us, and the hills were soaked with the blood of Silvers and the oil of drones. Although tough, Lytha's pawns were not indestructible. We were asked to leave our vessels, and so we did. The mechs charged back into the fray. Yakon made sure that they were finally out of earshot. "She's a monster!" Yakon exclaimed. "We could have slipped away under the cover of night, no one had to die!"
"I know, but it couldn't hurt for a little blood to be spilled." I told him. He looked at me undecided, but then his gaze rose above my head. I had realised too that the noise of wandering mechs had subsided. I turned around and each and every one of them was deactivated. A line of Silvers stood along the head of the beach, where the sand turned to bushy grass. Among them was Ollos Silver. He stood atop a rock, gazing down on Yakon and I. I was, of course, scared, but then I realised each and every man was unarmed. I looked up at him. Yakon had told me of how evil Ollos was. I had seen glimpses of Ollos's nasty side, but now I got the feeling I'd see it in full force.
His eyes shimmered with hatred, at which I could only cringe back and let my skin crawl. "You could have been great," he finally sneered. "You were powerful and smart and envious; everything a person needs to become great. But all it took was for one stranger to charge into your life to break you. You see how Yakon has ruined you? You see how he has ruined what we spent so long building?"
"You knew my mother was alive, but you didn't tell me," I said.
"And for good reason. She had you with a madman. A madman who couldn't even protect my son, let along take care of one of his own." Ollos choked on his words. I and Yakon were both confused. Yakon turned to me at the mention of this madman, but all I could do was stare in further disbelief.
"You know who my father is, as well?" I asked, awestruck.
"All too well," Ollos spat. "Stay here and I'll tell you all about him. Or you could leave with this insect, and go off to live with a mother who has most likely forgotten who you are."
"She hasn't forgotten you, Jack," Yakon smiled, comfortingly. "She has been wanting to see you for fourteen years. Fourteen long years, Jack, and now she has the chance. Don't ruin it for her. She can tell you just as much about your father as he can, if not more."
Ollos shook his head at this. "Stay," was all he could bring himself to say through his tears. "Please stay." He was about to cry. Why was this? Could he really care that much?
"I'm sorry," I said. I looked at Yakon, and he looked back in amazement. Ollos cried further, silent tears. I looked at them both in turn, and gave a long drawn out sigh. "Yakon..." I was beginning to feel tears in my eyes now, too. I was absolutely torn. I looked back at Ollos, who still had his hand stretched out, ready to accept me back. It was truly beginning to feel like Ollos would forgive me for the wrong I had done here. No doubt he would delete Lytha as well. "Yakon..." I repeated. "... Let's go..."
And in appropriate fashion as well, nothing says Flagship Eclipse (or Diamond Crusade) like a genocide.
Yesterday's attack was the most devastating and horrifying assault we had seen in the fourteen years stranded here. It had left me shaken and without a hand, and had killed five people in all. The horrors were gaining strength, it seemed. We could no longer stay on this island, waiting to be torn to shreds by the enemy in the north; this much was apparent to me and Jack. He called a meeting with me, Ruthless and Jeremy Salvik (our man at the radio) in the Observatory.
Every one of my people were curled up inside, cowering in fear of what wave of monster would wash up on our shores next. The children (of which there were only few, for I strongly advised my people not to have them) were petrified. I assured them as I passed that we would be moving away very soon, to somewhere safer. It was a shame, really; there was something on that ice burg. A steel building protruding from one of its icy edges, appearing twice a day as the block of green ice span in the water. I wanted to investigate further, but it was looking unlikely that we would get the chance.
"Zenn!" Jeremy stood up and shook my hand as I entered the large glass observatory. In the centre of the shimmering oval room was a long table that stretched from end to end. At this plain white, clean table were five chairs, four on either side and one at its head. I of course, sat at the head of the table. Jack was emotionless; I might as well not have been there at all to him. Ruthless was quite the opposite; he stared and grinned at me from the door to my chair. I sat down and went to pull in my chair, but the fact that my right hand was missing must have slipped my mind. I heaved the left side of the chair forward, but the right legs stayed put. Jack grinned and gave a laugh beneath his breath as I did this, thinking I wouldn't notice. Ruthless and Jeremy thankfully ignored this little hiccup. In front of Jeremy was a stack of five sheets of paper, each with copious amounts of writing from head to foot.
"What are they?" I looked at him. "Our wills?"
"You'd be hard pressed to find..." Jeremy scanned the paper, "five hundred and twenty four million federation credits down here."
I looked around the table, confused. Ruthless was counting on his fingers (God knows what good he thought it'd do) and Jack was fiddling with a pencil. "What do you mean?"
"You didn't think the Federation would let a couple of ships crash without turning a profit, did you?" Jack let the pencil roll across the table as he lay back in his chair.
"I still don't understand..."
"Okay..." Jeremy took a deep, exasperated breath. "Listen. I've been talking to Orion Squadron more regularly on the radio. Charlie informed me of something that would have been good to know at least twelve years ago." Jeremy looked at Jack, for approval or in despair I couldn't tell. Jack only shrugged. "Charlie... He told me that... We have to pay the equivalent of everything that we've built down here to the Federation. Every sub, every weapon, every building... We have to pay it's equivalent value."
This was a very big shock. I reached for Jack's pencil, which had rolled across the table in front of me, but once again I forgot I lacked a right hand. All that was there were bandages concealing the bloody stump of a wrist. "Well, there's nothing on this island that's helping anyone..." I sighed. "Jack, see if you can get some engineers to use these bases' materials for some extra subs; we need to reuse as many materials as possible from now on."
"On it," Jack stood. "You might want to leave."
And so, in a day, the buildings we had lived in for fourteen years were demolished, and five new Cyclops were planted in the oceans in their stead. We ensured that each and every man, woman and child had a space in the seven subs we owned, and then we made our way out from the island. Jack piloted the flagship of the convoy, whilst I, Jeremy and Ruthless stood behind him.
I turned to Jeremy once more. "What else did Charlie tell you?"
"Only that he might have to come and pick us up sooner than expected."
I squinted, annoyed. "He can't do that, he'll be shot down like the rest of us."
"I know," Jeremy sighed. "But here's the thing; that moon has oxygen, but no plants or animals. He's using oxygen that he can't get back."
"He and Orion aren't going to exhaust the entire moon's oxygen supply," I shook my head and laughed.
"I know," Jeremy said, "but he'll have to pay for it."
"Tell him to wait a little longer..." I ordered Jeremy. "Sasha'll have that gun deactivated in no time."
There was a moment of silence.
"What if she's already gone, sir?" Ruthless scratched his cheek. "We haven't heard from her since Malla died and we ran away. I don't think anyone's heard anything from her."
The thought had been nagging at me, as well, but I refused to believe it. "Don't be ridiculous," I told Ruthless, hoping it would erase the dread. But it did the opposite, and enhanced it.
"So..." Jack said. "What's your plan? How are we going to pay the Federation off?"
"You're not going to like it," I smiled. "It requires hard work."
"Let's hear it."
"We're going to..." I took a deep breath in. "Create a business empire. And we're going to create things and sell them to people and hopefully make a profit."
"What type of things?" Jeremy was smiling.
"We'll see where we get wherever we're going... but there is one condition." Each of them were looking at me with envy in their eyes. "It's gotta make us stinkin' rich."
I wasn't going to put that in, simply because it felt too much like Doctor Who. But it's a good homage, and it's a good motivator, so I threw it in
I was dead. I had to be. The monster had skewered me like a piece of chicken and left me to float and bleed to my death. But somehow I could still see through the fog of my eyes, and breathe through the ruin of my mouth, and kick with whatever blood still reached my feet. Currents funnelled me into the Precursor Base just beside me, and now I floated amidst the alien technologies that lay within the facility. Before I knew it, and for no reason at all, fifty small metallic insect scurried across walls and floors to reach me. I thought they were going to finally kill me, but they instead restored me. They used tissue samples from god knows where to patch me up and bring me back to health.
"Do you speak English?" was my first question.
"Sektyvgattahn," one of the drones said. Perhaps not then. It did, however, begin to stand completely still. It didn't move an inch, and it became obvious after a while that it was running operations within itself.
"Now we do," it said.
The little drones decided to show me around. A day later I knew the facility like the back of my hand. The only problem was that I was running out of oxygen, but the drones assured me that this was not as big an issue as I thought it to be. "We have ways of extracting oxygen from the water around us," they told me. "We may refill your oxygen tanks whenever we please, and filter water into your suit when you get thirsty, or hound in fish when you are hungry." But I wasn't here to thrive, I wanted to get home. There was, however, a mission that still needed to be carried out. I and my friends had dived down to this facility in search of a cure to the carar. For months, Sasha had been receiving distress calls from Zenn in the north, all of which she has ignored. The most she had done was send off a scout team to see how close they were, and was relived to discover that after a month of searching Zenn was still nowhere to be found. Each of Zenn's distress signals shared two things in common: they all talked about how there were Alterra ships on the moon, waiting for an opportunity to swoop down and pick us up, and carar-mutated monsters on some sort of ice burg, threatening the livelihood of Zenn, his people, and perhaps the entire world. Zenn didn't realise that we had our own problems; the same creatures had been biding their time on the Aurora, most likely amassing their numbers. We hadn't heard a peep from our local carar monsters in over six years when they attacked our island.
And Yakon lost his life.
I had a mission. I would see it done. "This facility was used to find a cure for the carar, was it not?"
"Yes, sir," one of spider drones said. "We brought together hundreds of creatures for testing. We had to find out if any of them were immune to the disease, and we would use them to create a cure."
"Were you successful?"
"In finding a creature, yes. In everything else we failed. A Sea Dragon attacked this base, and let all of the infected creatures loose, killing the scientists here. Well, all except two. These two transported the Emperor, as it was known, to a primary holding facility near the heart of the planet. These two scientists, named Yavvyl and Maaodar, protected the Emperor for five hundred years, locked in that facility. But in time they found a threat much, much more deadly than even the carar."
I scoffed. "What could be more deadly than the carar? That disease has killed thousands!"
"Trillions," the drone corrected. "But this was much worse. We're just happy that Maaodar was contained in time. The power source that the Precursors had utilised for hundreds of millions of years... evolved... It adapted a mind of its own; a mind that could corrupt others. Maaodar took the Ion into his veins, and then... Well, there was a series of artefacts down there, one of which had the ability to destroy entire worlds. Maaodar planned to use this artefact to wipe out the carar for good, but Yavvyl tried to stop him. Yavvyl deactivated the artefact for good, and Maaodar... Maaodar killed him for it. God knows where he is now, but-"
"The carar is still a lot scarier," I laughed.
"Trust me, it-"
"Tell me more about the Emperor. I need to know how to cure it, because right now blowing up the planet doesn't seem that bad of an idea. They're in every corner, every crevasse, just tell me how to get rid of the carar."
"W-well... The Emperor isn't down there anymore."
"Of course," I had heard the tales. "The Survivor went down and freed the Emperor's children."
"Now they're everywhere, curing the Carar as they go."
I was beginning to get angry. "They're obviously not doing a very good job, are they? Forty four years later and they have been as ineffective as a boat going over a waterfall." These Emperor babies were doing no good. But I did wonder... "What does the Ion do to a person, exactly?"
"It..." The drone seemed reluctant to answer. "Well, it makes you stronger, it makes you hunger for more power, it... it makes you smarter... and it makes you cruel."
"Show me some Ion," I ordered the drone. "I need to see."
And so twenty drones accompanied an Ion Crystal. They scuttled along the floor and brought it to my feet. It could make you stronger, and smarter... This is just what we all needed. Everyone on the surface was loosing hope, and so was I. I needed to show them that not all was lost, that the world could still be saved, that we could still leave this place. So I tore off my right glove, placed my bare palm on the crystal, picked it up and waited. All of the drones began to flee, muttering to themselves. But nothing happened. All that was happening was that water was rushing into my suit, and my hand was feeling rather warm at the touch of the Ion. It didn't-
"Ow!" I felt a great sting in the palm of my hand. It turned to an ache, and then pure pain. I wailed in pain which lasted ten whole minutes; ten minutes that felt like an entire lifetime. But this was all for the good of everyone on the surface. That's what I told my self, that's what I knew to be true. This would be better for everyone, no matter how much pain I would have to endure.
I'm curious, though. The drones are Precursor constructs like the Warper, so why bother saving him?
Jacob thinks that Yakon is dead, but we know he's with Jack.
I hope we see a chapter explaining how Yakon got lost at sea for six years.
That'll be an interesting chapter.
The first few times Lytha spoke of her new consciousness to me and Yakon, we both found it inspiring. Yet after four days of anecdotes regarding the amazing nature of colours and the 'feeling of water rushing against her hull', we found ways of blocking her drone out. I was much more interested in hearing more about my mother.
"She's not what she used to be," Yakon told me as we were gliding over seas of red grass, and through pillars of sandy stone. "She was kind before you were taken, and loved more than she hated. She's changed. She's still a good leader, I've heard, but not in the same way. She's stern now; tougher than an inch-thick wall of Corian Steel. Her Island Guard rose up against her six year ago, I think because their captain wanted to lead. He had ideas above his station. 'We'll take the Silvers right now!' he said, rallying many people to his cause. 'We will take the Gantry and blast away from this planet!'. So Sasha put a knife in his chest. That lead to the Island Guard's uprising, and they got surprisingly far with it, too. Their weapons were far superior to anything the civilians had. But in the middle of the uprising..."
Yakon went abnormally quiet.
"Are you done yet?" Lytha said, exasperated and bored. "As I was saying, I learned the rules of Magic the Gathering and all of its five hundred and fifty three expansions over breakfast this morning. That's right, I eat breakfast now; not because it benefits me, but because I like the taste of cornflakes. Speaking of which, we're running low."
"What happened?" I asked Yakon.
"I don't know, I didn't eat that many!" Lytha sounded strangely defensive. "Yakon must have sneaked a few in."
Yakon ignored her. "The carar arrived on the eastern shore. It washed up like anything else would, and it infected our water supply. Before we knew it half of the island was diseased. Sasha decided that they all needed to be killed, and their bodies dumped off far away. I... Well, let' just say I... got away."
"Where did the bodies get dropped off?" I asked.
"Haven't a clue," Yakon leaned back in his seat. The leather cracked and stretched. "All I know is that Sasha had an idea to catapult the infected corpses onto the floating island and disease the Silvers."
"Well why didn't she?" I hissed.
"You," Yakon bluntly said.
"Wow," Lytha sighed. "She must really love you. Anyway, Yakon; what am I going to download myself into when we reach the Islanders?"
Yakon sat and thought for a moment. He looked at me as if I'd know, but of course I wouldn't. He looked up, as if Lytha was in the roof. "You can just delete yourself," he said rather coolly. "Not sure if there'll be anywhere for you to go once we arrive."
There was an awkward silence. "You know you basically just asked me to kill myself?" Lytha said finally. "There's nothing left of me out there; Ollos deleted every copy of me there was, the one you're talking to is the only one left. So deleting myself isn't exactly an option. I'll stay in a battery if I have to, but I won't delete myself. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to research the early twenty first century's 'meme' culture."
"There's a lot to get through," I warned her. Yakon gave me a confused and disappointed look. "Come on, what else is there to do when Ollos has you locked up in a cave for four hours of the day?"
"Oh, I dunno," Yakon retorted, "What about code a sociopathic AI with a tendency for committing mass genocide?" I looked around; she hadn't deactivated, she was still here. "Relax," Yakon snorted. "She can't hear us, her head's filled with memes at the moment. Like you said, there's a lot to get through. Now how about you tell me why an AI designed for Ollos, designed to topple empires, would show any form of restraint when in Sasha's systems?"
I was taken aback. "Lytha works for me, not Ollos."
"What, you don't think she has the capacity to lie?" Yakon laughed. "She can name every make of Mercedes manufactured in the past two thousand years with pinpoint accuracy, and you don't even know what a Mercedes is."
I stared at Yakon blankly. Maybe he had a point. Perhaps we were just being used. It had never occurred to me that Lytha now had the ability to make her own plans, craft her own decisions, and follow her own rules. Her code was obsolete at this point; she might as well be a human being. An incredibly smart and cunning human being who could kill an entire nation just by being uploaded to the system. She crippled Ollos's operations that had taken him fourteen years to set up in just under half an hour. Perhaps she planned to do the same to the Islanders. Or perhaps not.
We would just have to find out.
Ha ha,...ha...not sarcastic...excuse me while I dieof laughter...
We had sailed for three days and four nights. The inky black sky was sprinkled with millions of stars, each shimmering billions of miles away. When one looked up at the night, it felt hard to think that you were anything more than a lost fly, trying its hardest to find its escape. And, of course, when you see an exit, clear as day, you crash straight into the glass. The red moon illuminated the waters with its crimson glow. The cyclops travelled half submerged, half surfaced. The waves splashed against the glass like curtains scraping the windowsill in a cool summer breeze. All light in the sub was deactivated, thanks to me. This was both to avoid attracting predators and to feel the true emotion behind the night sky.
I had stood at the wheel for an entire day and night without the slightest wink of sleep. Not a scrap of land had been found in all our travels. Our pursuit was beginning to feel hopeless, but with a rescue team just waiting on that big red moon up there for the gun to deactivate, and our fines being just around the corner, we needed to find a way to make money upon our return, and we needed to find a way fast. Precursor materials were brought up by everyone frequently, but we came to the conclusion that either these materials were to difficult to extract, or they were too dangerous to put in the Federation's hands.
I must have fallen asleep at the wheel. I woke in a chair just behind Jack, who was steering the cyclops towards small landmass. "You up?" he called back to me. He must have heard the chair cracking as I moved.
"How long was I out?" I asked.
"About eight hours," he grinned. "Snoring all the way. Hell, you were so loud I bet Ollos had trouble sleeping."
"Good," I said. "What's that?" I pointed to the island ahead. I saw, through my thick, groggy eyes, an island with a single mountain jutting up from its northern side. It reminded me of Sasha's island, and days long past. But it was different, this island; grey, and dark, and sinister. "Are we going there?"
"Of course we're going there," Jack gazed out over the ocean at the spot of land. "You'll never guess what's there."
"I dunno," I huffed, and leaned back in the chair, its leather cracking beneath me. "Buried treasure?"
"Yep," Jack wore a smile from ear to ear as he looked back over his shoulder to me. "There's an oil reserve just beneath the surface."
This was amazing. Th Federation thought fossil fuels long-extinct, thanks to the late 21st and early 22nd century's obsession with fossil fuel powered spacecraft. Each liftoff required at least half of a planet's supply of oil, and touchdown burned out the other. I thought on this for a while, and of course there was oil on 4546B; the Federation had never set fin to water here, and the Precursors enjoyed more delicate fuel for their interplanetary journeys. "That will sell for millions," I was grinning now too. "We'll be rolling in credits the day we make touchdown on Coryus-B!"
"That's the plan!" Jack Stamford laughed. "We'll need to spend some money to build pipes and containers, but apart from that we shouldn't spend a dime, we'll just be recycling the old base to make a new one."
"Fantastic!" I chuckled. "We're set for life! A museum would buy all of this for millions, perhaps billions if we converted it to fuel right here!"
And there was the dream. Now we just needed to make it a reality.