Myllinnia
The Bladed-Wings of Timespace
Current Project Word Count: 4784
(REVISION IN PROGRESS OFFLINE)
Prologue
Rising Phoenix
The sun was brightly shining its golden afternoon light, the crashing sounds of waves and bitter sweet smells of the nearby ocean was soothing to me. A gentle cool breeze touched my soft light mocha skin and curvaceous well-endowed body as I lay upon the green grassy hill overlooking the peaceful azure waters of the ocean. A tree sat nearby its shade dancing along my form as I lay there, with my eyes closed. It was peaceful here, the music of nature lightly filled the air, and I sigh with my arms behind my head, where the wealth of my lustrous and extremely long black hair spilled around and sometimes over me.
The sun cresting at its zenith, its noon light filtering through the tree’s branches but I was content to lay here. For just a short distance away is the lonely base, its steel gray walls and cold glass gleaming harshly in the spring sun. I work there, me, ten other technicians, and about forty military men and women. I was a civilian of course, contracted by the government to build them a powerful machine to stand against the three other nations around us. My machine, the Titan Mega-Fighter, would redefine the way Rayze conducted its defense of the nation.
I sigh again and run a sleepy and slender hand along my red tube top shirt that hugged snugly to my buxom form. My other hand adjusts the short black shorts and I crack open my indigo blue eyes. I felt a change in the wind, a small part of me telling me something was amiss.
“Titania,” a familiar male voice shouts loudly behind my tree, the hill likely still hiding my form from the base’s ground level. I groan and sit up slightly a frown touching my lips. “Titania Tyrendis!”
“What,” I shout with a sharp and annoyed tone as I turn to glance beyond my tree and to Merin, the liaison between her team and the military. He was an okay and sometimes jovial older bald man, who loved working with the team as much as supervising them. Merin also belonged to the large Sollyn Phoenix Heavy Industries, a mysterious corporation that had offered its new engine system to my mega-fighter. I shake aside my long jet black hair and grumble somewhat to myself. “It’s the team’s day off Merin, my day off!”
“We are being evacuated, Titania,” he shouts as he reaches me looking a little winded as he leans against the nearby tree trying to catch his breath. He wore a dark blue set of coveralls, stained with grease and oil and his gray eyes gleamed with fear. Apparently he had been with the Titan’s Drive to Reactor linkages until he was interrupted. “You left your cell phone in your quarters.”
“You were in my room,” I say with a cool tone and a raised eyebrow as I stand up brushing grass from my shorts and back.
He smiles sheepishly, “Well it is well known that you’d sleep the day away if you had the sudden whim to.” He look turns serious suddenly almost knocking me off guard. “That is neither here nor there, Titiania, we have to go. Now!”
I raise my chin for a moment in indignation but it quickly passes. Evacuation? “What is this about an Evacuation, the bases alarms aren’t going off?”
Merin rubs at the back of his bald head for a moment, “The Rayze navy will not make it in time and we don’t want to tip the enemy off that we know. The Command types want to leave a good surprise for them.”
Well that was news to me and apparently time would be a quickly dwindling resource. I grumble and bolt for the base, Merin is quickly following behind me, his heavy breathing growing louder. As we hit the bottom of the hill I shout back to him. “I guess Titan isn’t going to get completed in time then?” The machine was on its last few adjustment phases and the power system was not ready for a full test. “They have it loaded in the carrier plane?”
“I don’t know, Command was being closed lipped about it when they sent me to find you.” I slow as we hit the base’s tarmac, my thoughts running through a bunch of scenarios. Would they blow the Titan with the base? I assumed the base’s power core would be set to explode, ensuring all buildings on the island were destroyed. Something was off, and I realized this as I neared the hanger. Where were the rest of the team? I knew then that something bad was going to happen, call it woman’s intuition or what not, but I knew that the command types were going to do something stupid.
“How are we leaving Merin,” I ask him as I add more speed to my run. He opens his mouth to answer but falls silent a moment later a frown on his face. Exactly, I thought to myself feeling fear trickle into my heart. “We might want to sneak around the back, if there is a plane at the ready we’ll find it there.” Otherwise, it was a cliff and the ocean to run to.
“Right,” he says his eyes darting around as he brings his hand to rest upon his side arm that he was known to carry. What was interesting was that if we had been attacked, I would have been in the best place to have noticed the invading force from all but the northern area of the island where the base itself was situated and a harsh cliff was there. It is not hard to see ships or fighters or even humanoid shaped Mecha from the hill I had been on. The battle would have been spectacular. There was no damage to the facility I had noticed as we neared the hanger that housed the Titan and the base’s various aircraft. I reach my slender hand to the door knob and gasp when a shot from a gun strikes the door. I quickly turn to face the assailant and watch as five green uniformed soldiers run over to us, the sixth held his weapon trained at us from a distance. Merin raised his hands a frown his face his eyes looking for other unknown people. I caught quickly Merin’s quick signal with his fingers. The subtle movements were new but the signals were devised by the team and he while work on the Titan commenced. With its loud drive system one had to make due, especially when one’s military distrusted you to use wireless communications. I gave him a return acceptance of his signal and turn my gaze to the soldiers as the approached. Merin wanted a distraction, likely to call for help.
“Come on,” I complain darkly, “What kind of joke is this? Just yesterday Security had me stripped, that’s right, stripped down to my silky underwear just before work due to some sort of drill. And you six come traipsing across the tarmac as if it…” Merin grins softly to himself a moment and he lowers his arms slightly.
“If you know what is good for you, girl you will stay quiet,” the soldier before me says with a harsh glint to his gray eyes.
“Quiet,” I screech at him causing several members to cringe from the tone as I stab a finger at his Kevlar armored chest. It was very rarely that anyone got me to screech at the higher octaves these last few months, and sometimes it was fun to watch the cringing and wincing. Speaking of I wonder where my team was. I hope they were alright and ready to launch. “Do you know the indignation that I went through? No I don’t think you do. That drill was extremely useless! Useless! You have some explaining to do soldier boy and you best make it quick. I still have two months before Serenity releases their next album and you are making it hard for me to even make ends meet. Being captured and previously…”
“I said be quiet,” and all weapons I find are trained on me. If nothing else Merin should be getting a signal to someone. This distraction was getting a little exciting.
My harsh gaze falls fully on the one who shouted his orders and I feel his weapon pressed against my abdomen. I turn slightly and see that Merin has returned his hands to the high point, but his cell phone was hidden in his sleeve while his fingers do a quick series of short movements, movements well understood. Message sent? Good. A look of admiration was on his face and I grant him a quick two finger signal behind my back as I turn my attention back to the soldiers.
“Good now lady down with your hands behind your head, you too baldie,” he commands sharply.
“What,” I shout several octaves higher and they all cringe a moment shooting glares at me. I just had to delay a little longer, where were the sounds of the planes that should be launching, or our own maligned security personnel? “Do you honestly think I’m going to let a pervert like you have your way with me? I have no doubt that you intend to strip me further than last sickos.” Poor Security, you’ll be remembered for your reputation’s sacrifice.
“I said…” Really? I silence him with a well-timed and firmly placed kick that even surprised me. In hindsight this was likely not a good idea. The soldier falls to his knees grasping at his wounded pride and his weapon clattered to the ground. Well that worked well, the others of his team were stunned at my audacious behavior and one of them regret it as I send a kick at his hands knocking his weapon to the ground. Perhaps this wasn’t so bad after all, chaos was spreading through their small ranks. I managed a third disarming when a shot rings out and I stop turning to the distant man who had stopped us. I did hear a gunshot right? Confusion suddenly took ahold and I stared at the not very happy men before falling with a sigh. Why had I done that, why had my legs gone out from under me, why was it hard to breath? There are more gunshots following the last one, Merin had bolted for the side of the building, I think he was shooting back, I cannot be sure. I was starting to get colder and my gaze turns slowly to the peaceful blue sky. The day had started out as a nice peaceful one, a young twenty year old lady such as myself relaxing on her day off. I realized then that I must have been dying, the pain in my chest indicating the location of the mortal injury.
“Heaven better get Serenity’s next album,” I complain as I close my eyes slowly. The ground suddenly shook and I could hear the cries of confusion and dismay as the shaking grew more violent. I crack open an eye wishing I could die in peace and then suddenly there was a moment of weightlessness, and then the sky disappeared taking with it the warm sun. I was falling, I realized with a hint of alarm and a sharp cry. Though I was dead right? It was quite likely that I wouldn’t feel the floor as I splatter across it. Then as quickly as I fell I noticed that my decent started to slow, and a frown touched my lips while I tilted my head to the side to look down and find darkness greeting me. Eventually like a whole eternity, I am deposited to the cool floor. A smooth metal floor touches the bare sections of my back and legs and I blink looking up at the distant spot where a hole in the ground must have appeared.
For a moment or two I lay there sighing to myself and then I slam a hand against the metal floor and shout with an obvious unhappy tone to my voice, “Why can’t I die! I’ve been shot, is that not the pinnacle of death? You know, dying unable to be recovered unless take to a hospital where one would get a million and one transfusions and surgeries?” I blink then and slam my fist against the ground again, there was a decidedly firm metal sound to it. I sit up with a sudden peak of curiosity and wince as pain stabs at my chest. “Ah yes,” I say with a frown and holding back pain. “I have been shot, that’s the pain I expect that should come from…” There was something missing. Like the sticky warmth of free flowing blood. I look sharply down at my chest and frown at the slight bulge upon my right breast. I think for a moment then reach in and pull out the metal covered novel that I had been reading earlier that day. It must have slipped down from its odd perch at the top of my breasts. My look flattens a moment as I disregard my current unknown location as my concern for something precious took a hold.
“Ah, darn it,” I hiss and open the metal casing that the book lay in, “Right through the heart of Jaris Sorrin. Now how is Rina supposed to get of that icky arranged marriage that’s hanging over her head?” I pulled the book out and sigh as the flattened bullet clattered into the corner of the metal case. There was now a large stressed dent in the back of the reinforced book cover. “Ah well Jaris,” I say rubbing my really sore breast, “You saved me. Well you and my fifty credit book cover.” I had bought the case because of my work, oil drenched romance novels are not very good reading after all. Or even dropped and chopped to smithereens by the various machines and parts that I have been working with of late. The metal case would have kept the book alive long enough for me to shut down anything. It looked like however; that it couldn’t save my book from a rifle fired bullet.
“Well no point crying over it. My life is obviously not threatened.” I nod and look around my surrounds with a curious glance. The military had made no mention of something being under the base. A sliver of light was upon me from a point way high above and I look up that way with a deep frown finding a very unreachable hole. Around me was metal walls, floor, and likely a metal and high ceiling. A big metal container perhaps, I thought to myself with a critical eye. In the middle of this huge spacious container-like thing lay a tarp covered object that was at least the size of a fighter and a single computer console that stood flat and thin before the tarp covered item. With a groan I stand up and wander over to the console a bit of my undying curiosity begging to know what this was. Not that falling and not sustaining an injury because of it was enough to draw curiosity on its own, but I was sure all my answers may be on this console.
I reach my hand towards it and as my fingers lightly touch the black panel it lit up quickly showing a strange an unusual angular emblem. My free ankle length black hair waved in the air as a soft wind began to pick up. Nervously I looked around and then with a high pitched squeal that escaped my lips rings of light encircled me each pulsing rays of light into me. My cheeks reddened as I felt the light travel across the contours of my body. As it traveled along my body I felt a strange and wonderful sensation race along my body eliciting a sharp gasp from me. It was a sensation I had never felt before, a sensation that persists for what almost feels like an eternity. The rings suddenly stop and I gasp as my legs and arms are forcefully spread, the rings moved and turned to a soft colored blue, and then without warning the rings pulsed five beams into my body. Two of the blasts strike my wrists, two strike at my outer thighs, and one just above my chest, each causing cries of pain to escape my lips as they sear my skin. Then as sudden as it happened the rings and sensations vanished leaving me to collapse to the ground panting slightly.
My light mocha skin gleamed damply with sweat and my breath came sharply as if I had been running around the island for a good while. Every part of me hurt, and my chest was really unhappy with me having been abused earlier. Trembling slightly with pain and exhaustion I turn a throbbing wrist to face me and my eyes widen as I find a shimmering, glittering, indigo diamond shaped crystal embedded there. The diamond’s pure and clear color had only one discrepancy I noticed as I saw pulses of minute light race in erratic paths deep inside. Biting my lower lip I looked to the right most side of my right thigh and there, as well, lay a diamond shaped crystal just like the one in my wrists. I realize quickly that for every beam that had hit me there was a crystal in those very same spots. What the heck had just happened, and why were these on me now?
The pain began fading quickly and I managed to regain a calmer pace of breathing after a good moment. Taking a deep breath I stood and finding a pleasant surprise as I find my legs ready to hold my weight despite the slight burning sensation there. My indigo eyes fall upon the console a moment later and my a sense of growing dread fills me as I read the message there. [Alterion Core has Initialized and Synchronized.] What did this mean? Absently I rub at the area around the chest crystal, wincing as it stung slightly. The message changed a moment later reading, [Destruction of this facility will commence. Alterion Core must evacuate.] What was this Core, I go to poke the screen but stop realizing that this was likely a waste of time especially if the place was about to self-destruct.
“Evacuate, easy for you to say.” I then notice the opening, it wasn’t a well-lit opening but it was an opening that lead deeper inside and hopefully out. I was sure that this had not been here before, the only opening I had assumed was the one I had come from, but here it was, a dimly lit corridor. The light inside this metal place suddenly turned to a stark red and the wind stopped. I frowned and bolted for the revealed opening and the corridor beyond it became better lit as I entered. As I passed my eyes caught briefly the tarp and I realized only briefly that whatever was under it was now gone. With an uneasy frown I run through the straight and empty corridor coming to its exit with a fair amount of time. Beyond the corridor lay a huge cavern complete with water and a slender makeshift dock. Set near the dock lay a black submersible bobbing gently in the water.
Paying nothing else much mind, I run to the end of the dock and examine the submersible. Slender and black, it looked likely that it could take twenty or so people, a hatch lay wide open near the front, and I worried that I might not be able to drive it. The cavern shakes as something deeper inside detonates and a rush for fire and smoke runs from the corridor I had left. I give a short cry and leap onto the sub and then down its open hatch stopping on the ladder long enough to grab a hold of the hatch’s closing mechanism slamming the hatch shut. Deftly I secure the hatch and slide the rest of the way inside. A sense of urgency propelled me through the short passageway as another explosion rocked the cavern. The control room was pretty close bye and I examine the controls quickly to my dismay I find no way to control the submarine from here. Without warning the submarine jostles and the hum of its engines fills the room, while dials indicated that it was diving under the surface.
“Perhaps it is on auto,” I ask myself as I sit town in one of the leather bound seats that sat before the simple console. “As long as there is nothing in the water then I should be fine I guess.” The lights in the sub turned from its soft white to the harsh combat red and my heart sinks. A tremendous boom echoes through the water and struck the sub shaking it violently. I held tightly to my seat and began to pray. After all I had been spared from a bullet and a deadly fall, god had to be watching. Alarms blare and the hum of the sub changed to a grinding sound. It had been seriously damaged.
Without warning the sub jumped from the water making a loud splash. Nearly thrown from my seat I go the hatch and open it. Climbing out my eyes are met with a horrible sight. The base was burning, my lovely tree among it, but my horror was fully realized when I saw the large and heavy moving fighter, the Titan, hovering before the various building lancing stark crimson red beams into them. Had anyone escaped, what of my team, what of the base personnel? I did have a lot of fun here, even if it was a boring out of the way place.
While I brood the Titan turns its silvery form towards me and I caught the sight of the twin wing cannons glowed as they drew in the particles it needed to fire. I felt my heart sink further with dismay as I realized it had detected me. The Titan’s sensors were extraordinarily far seeing after all, meant to strike at defenders and attackers from a good quarter mile away. There are two flashes of light and with a gasp I raise my hands and close my eyes in a futile attempt to block the beams. I felt the harsh impact of the beams, I felt the heat that felt as if it would incinerate me, but before it got too much I fell into the arms of darkness, her sweet caress easing me into my death. Or so a part of me hoped.
I’m not sure how long I was out, I just know that I felt coldness grip my body. I opened my eyes and found the stabbing harsh light of artificial light glaring down at me. With a moan of discomfort I cover my eyes and attempt to look around.
“Ah, you are awake,” a female voice says suddenly. I blink and look to my right where a woman with long shimmering red hair stood wearing a white jacket and skirt. Sollyn Phoenix Heavy Industries emblem sat over her right breast. Her green eyes stare at me calmly and a small smile touched her red lips. I give her an uneasy smile back. “So this is heaven? I have a question.” The woman raises an eyebrow, “Will you be getting Serenity’s latest album up here?”
The woman chuckles, “It appears that your sense of humor survived the attack, which is good. But no, this is not heaven, not even close to it. It is not hell either so you don’t have to worry about that either.”
“Ah, that sucks. I was just getting use to the thought of being dead.” I give the woman a slight smile. “So where am I? And how in the name that is orderly and good in this world did I not die from Titan’s mid ranged particle cannons?”
“Well,” the woman begins the smile fading slightly. “You are on the Sollyn Phoenix Transport Ship Cayren. More specifically you are in the isolation ward and sickbay of the Cayren. Now as to how you survived the direct blasts from the Titan is still being investigated.”
“Investigated? Perhaps, it was a failure in the guidance systems. You know I am the designer and main technician of the Titan. I’m rather surprised it was able to move actually, the adjustments to the Reactor Core and Drive system weren’t even complete.”
“These crystals,” the woman asks curiously breaking from the subject, “where did you get them?”
Would it be okay to tell her? Well she was from the Sollyn Phoenix Heavy Industries, a member of the Rayze Industry Guilds. That large grouping of corporations and businesses were respected across the nation. “I fell, kind of, into a hole under the Titan’s hanger. I don’t know how far down,” I point at the bullet hole in my tube top shirt, “I thought I was dying you see. Anyway there as some strange computer down there that when I touched it gave me these.” I blink as my right hand gently rubs at the chest crystal. “Well at least the burning has faded. I suppose I should be thankful for being blasted unconscious.”
“Was it,” the woman falls silent drawing my attention back to her. “Was it Alterion’s Cradle?”
“I’m not sure,” I respond a confused look, besides what was an Alterion Cradle anyway? “There were no signs or any other markings, but the computer thing there mentioned an Alterion. Do you know it?”
“Oh yes, I know it intimately.” The woman says with a nod as she crosses her arms. “It is a special item granted to only a special person.”
I look at the crystals embedded in my wrists. “So, I have this Alterion don’t I?”
“I think you do. I will have to have some tests done on you to prove it though.”
“Oh fun,” my tone is flat even if my eyes glitter impishly, “kind of like the tests the military put me through to get on the island.” I raise an eyebrow at her recalling the last time I had been poked and prodded. “There had better not be any perverts where I go for these tests.”
The woman gives a soft chuckle and brushes aside strands wayward red hair. “If there are I am quite sure that you can deal with them well.”
I chuckle at that and with my lilting laugh the woman joins in for short moment. Once the moment had passed the woman sighs heavily and nods.
“By the way I am the CEO of the Sollyn Phoenix Heavy Industries. My name is Lady Pherin Rim and I pleased to meet you Miss Tyrendis.”
I blink at her and tilted my head giving her a curious look. “How do you know my name?”
Lady Rim sighs softly before answering, “Merin told me plenty of you. Especially of your somewhat reckless behavior on the island just moments before the Titan launched. But mostly because your Titan does use one of my heavy duty drive systems.”
“Oh that Merin! Always talking about me behind my back,” I chuckle lightly but the fun was gone again. People had died, people I had known. “Were there any survivors?”
Lady Rim shakes her head, “When I picked you up from the burning wreckage of your vessel, the Titan was gone. I have a team is investigating the island as we speak. So far no survivors have been discovered. Though it should be noted there is no sign of the Titan development team as of yet.”
I’m not sure what to think of that. Had it been an elaborate ruse, a means to steal the Titan and its crew? But who? The soldiers were not from any single nation I recalled. There was no signs of an invasion fleet, no aircraft. It was very strange and it sat ill with me.
“It will most likely take us several days to get you back to Barril, where my headquarters are. I would be greatly relieved if you allowed yourself, free of charge of course, to be examined to make sure that crystals in your body are what I suspect them to be.”
“Well I hope they are not life threatening but I will go with you. After all, it’s either that or I will have to explain to a bunch of stiff necked and paranoid military generals why I am the last one alive.”
(REVISION IN PROGRESS OFFLINE)
Prologue
Rising Phoenix
The sun was brightly shining its golden afternoon light, the crashing sounds of waves and bitter sweet smells of the nearby ocean was soothing to me. A gentle cool breeze touched my soft light mocha skin and curvaceous well-endowed body as I lay upon the green grassy hill overlooking the peaceful azure waters of the ocean. A tree sat nearby its shade dancing along my form as I lay there, with my eyes closed. It was peaceful here, the music of nature lightly filled the air, and I sigh with my arms behind my head, where the wealth of my lustrous and extremely long black hair spilled around and sometimes over me.
The sun cresting at its zenith, its noon light filtering through the tree’s branches but I was content to lay here. For just a short distance away is the lonely base, its steel gray walls and cold glass gleaming harshly in the spring sun. I work there, me, ten other technicians, and about forty military men and women. I was a civilian of course, contracted by the government to build them a powerful machine to stand against the three other nations around us. My machine, the Titan Mega-Fighter, would redefine the way Rayze conducted its defense of the nation.
I sigh again and run a sleepy and slender hand along my red tube top shirt that hugged snugly to my buxom form. My other hand adjusts the short black shorts and I crack open my indigo blue eyes. I felt a change in the wind, a small part of me telling me something was amiss.
“Titania,” a familiar male voice shouts loudly behind my tree, the hill likely still hiding my form from the base’s ground level. I groan and sit up slightly a frown touching my lips. “Titania Tyrendis!”
“What,” I shout with a sharp and annoyed tone as I turn to glance beyond my tree and to Merin, the liaison between her team and the military. He was an okay and sometimes jovial older bald man, who loved working with the team as much as supervising them. Merin also belonged to the large Sollyn Phoenix Heavy Industries, a mysterious corporation that had offered its new engine system to my mega-fighter. I shake aside my long jet black hair and grumble somewhat to myself. “It’s the team’s day off Merin, my day off!”
“We are being evacuated, Titania,” he shouts as he reaches me looking a little winded as he leans against the nearby tree trying to catch his breath. He wore a dark blue set of coveralls, stained with grease and oil and his gray eyes gleamed with fear. Apparently he had been with the Titan’s Drive to Reactor linkages until he was interrupted. “You left your cell phone in your quarters.”
“You were in my room,” I say with a cool tone and a raised eyebrow as I stand up brushing grass from my shorts and back.
He smiles sheepishly, “Well it is well known that you’d sleep the day away if you had the sudden whim to.” He look turns serious suddenly almost knocking me off guard. “That is neither here nor there, Titiania, we have to go. Now!”
I raise my chin for a moment in indignation but it quickly passes. Evacuation? “What is this about an Evacuation, the bases alarms aren’t going off?”
Merin rubs at the back of his bald head for a moment, “The Rayze navy will not make it in time and we don’t want to tip the enemy off that we know. The Command types want to leave a good surprise for them.”
Well that was news to me and apparently time would be a quickly dwindling resource. I grumble and bolt for the base, Merin is quickly following behind me, his heavy breathing growing louder. As we hit the bottom of the hill I shout back to him. “I guess Titan isn’t going to get completed in time then?” The machine was on its last few adjustment phases and the power system was not ready for a full test. “They have it loaded in the carrier plane?”
“I don’t know, Command was being closed lipped about it when they sent me to find you.” I slow as we hit the base’s tarmac, my thoughts running through a bunch of scenarios. Would they blow the Titan with the base? I assumed the base’s power core would be set to explode, ensuring all buildings on the island were destroyed. Something was off, and I realized this as I neared the hanger. Where were the rest of the team? I knew then that something bad was going to happen, call it woman’s intuition or what not, but I knew that the command types were going to do something stupid.
“How are we leaving Merin,” I ask him as I add more speed to my run. He opens his mouth to answer but falls silent a moment later a frown on his face. Exactly, I thought to myself feeling fear trickle into my heart. “We might want to sneak around the back, if there is a plane at the ready we’ll find it there.” Otherwise, it was a cliff and the ocean to run to.
“Right,” he says his eyes darting around as he brings his hand to rest upon his side arm that he was known to carry. What was interesting was that if we had been attacked, I would have been in the best place to have noticed the invading force from all but the northern area of the island where the base itself was situated and a harsh cliff was there. It is not hard to see ships or fighters or even humanoid shaped Mecha from the hill I had been on. The battle would have been spectacular. There was no damage to the facility I had noticed as we neared the hanger that housed the Titan and the base’s various aircraft. I reach my slender hand to the door knob and gasp when a shot from a gun strikes the door. I quickly turn to face the assailant and watch as five green uniformed soldiers run over to us, the sixth held his weapon trained at us from a distance. Merin raised his hands a frown his face his eyes looking for other unknown people. I caught quickly Merin’s quick signal with his fingers. The subtle movements were new but the signals were devised by the team and he while work on the Titan commenced. With its loud drive system one had to make due, especially when one’s military distrusted you to use wireless communications. I gave him a return acceptance of his signal and turn my gaze to the soldiers as the approached. Merin wanted a distraction, likely to call for help.
“Come on,” I complain darkly, “What kind of joke is this? Just yesterday Security had me stripped, that’s right, stripped down to my silky underwear just before work due to some sort of drill. And you six come traipsing across the tarmac as if it…” Merin grins softly to himself a moment and he lowers his arms slightly.
“If you know what is good for you, girl you will stay quiet,” the soldier before me says with a harsh glint to his gray eyes.
“Quiet,” I screech at him causing several members to cringe from the tone as I stab a finger at his Kevlar armored chest. It was very rarely that anyone got me to screech at the higher octaves these last few months, and sometimes it was fun to watch the cringing and wincing. Speaking of I wonder where my team was. I hope they were alright and ready to launch. “Do you know the indignation that I went through? No I don’t think you do. That drill was extremely useless! Useless! You have some explaining to do soldier boy and you best make it quick. I still have two months before Serenity releases their next album and you are making it hard for me to even make ends meet. Being captured and previously…”
“I said be quiet,” and all weapons I find are trained on me. If nothing else Merin should be getting a signal to someone. This distraction was getting a little exciting.
My harsh gaze falls fully on the one who shouted his orders and I feel his weapon pressed against my abdomen. I turn slightly and see that Merin has returned his hands to the high point, but his cell phone was hidden in his sleeve while his fingers do a quick series of short movements, movements well understood. Message sent? Good. A look of admiration was on his face and I grant him a quick two finger signal behind my back as I turn my attention back to the soldiers.
“Good now lady down with your hands behind your head, you too baldie,” he commands sharply.
“What,” I shout several octaves higher and they all cringe a moment shooting glares at me. I just had to delay a little longer, where were the sounds of the planes that should be launching, or our own maligned security personnel? “Do you honestly think I’m going to let a pervert like you have your way with me? I have no doubt that you intend to strip me further than last sickos.” Poor Security, you’ll be remembered for your reputation’s sacrifice.
“I said…” Really? I silence him with a well-timed and firmly placed kick that even surprised me. In hindsight this was likely not a good idea. The soldier falls to his knees grasping at his wounded pride and his weapon clattered to the ground. Well that worked well, the others of his team were stunned at my audacious behavior and one of them regret it as I send a kick at his hands knocking his weapon to the ground. Perhaps this wasn’t so bad after all, chaos was spreading through their small ranks. I managed a third disarming when a shot rings out and I stop turning to the distant man who had stopped us. I did hear a gunshot right? Confusion suddenly took ahold and I stared at the not very happy men before falling with a sigh. Why had I done that, why had my legs gone out from under me, why was it hard to breath? There are more gunshots following the last one, Merin had bolted for the side of the building, I think he was shooting back, I cannot be sure. I was starting to get colder and my gaze turns slowly to the peaceful blue sky. The day had started out as a nice peaceful one, a young twenty year old lady such as myself relaxing on her day off. I realized then that I must have been dying, the pain in my chest indicating the location of the mortal injury.
“Heaven better get Serenity’s next album,” I complain as I close my eyes slowly. The ground suddenly shook and I could hear the cries of confusion and dismay as the shaking grew more violent. I crack open an eye wishing I could die in peace and then suddenly there was a moment of weightlessness, and then the sky disappeared taking with it the warm sun. I was falling, I realized with a hint of alarm and a sharp cry. Though I was dead right? It was quite likely that I wouldn’t feel the floor as I splatter across it. Then as quickly as I fell I noticed that my decent started to slow, and a frown touched my lips while I tilted my head to the side to look down and find darkness greeting me. Eventually like a whole eternity, I am deposited to the cool floor. A smooth metal floor touches the bare sections of my back and legs and I blink looking up at the distant spot where a hole in the ground must have appeared.
For a moment or two I lay there sighing to myself and then I slam a hand against the metal floor and shout with an obvious unhappy tone to my voice, “Why can’t I die! I’ve been shot, is that not the pinnacle of death? You know, dying unable to be recovered unless take to a hospital where one would get a million and one transfusions and surgeries?” I blink then and slam my fist against the ground again, there was a decidedly firm metal sound to it. I sit up with a sudden peak of curiosity and wince as pain stabs at my chest. “Ah yes,” I say with a frown and holding back pain. “I have been shot, that’s the pain I expect that should come from…” There was something missing. Like the sticky warmth of free flowing blood. I look sharply down at my chest and frown at the slight bulge upon my right breast. I think for a moment then reach in and pull out the metal covered novel that I had been reading earlier that day. It must have slipped down from its odd perch at the top of my breasts. My look flattens a moment as I disregard my current unknown location as my concern for something precious took a hold.
“Ah, darn it,” I hiss and open the metal casing that the book lay in, “Right through the heart of Jaris Sorrin. Now how is Rina supposed to get of that icky arranged marriage that’s hanging over her head?” I pulled the book out and sigh as the flattened bullet clattered into the corner of the metal case. There was now a large stressed dent in the back of the reinforced book cover. “Ah well Jaris,” I say rubbing my really sore breast, “You saved me. Well you and my fifty credit book cover.” I had bought the case because of my work, oil drenched romance novels are not very good reading after all. Or even dropped and chopped to smithereens by the various machines and parts that I have been working with of late. The metal case would have kept the book alive long enough for me to shut down anything. It looked like however; that it couldn’t save my book from a rifle fired bullet.
“Well no point crying over it. My life is obviously not threatened.” I nod and look around my surrounds with a curious glance. The military had made no mention of something being under the base. A sliver of light was upon me from a point way high above and I look up that way with a deep frown finding a very unreachable hole. Around me was metal walls, floor, and likely a metal and high ceiling. A big metal container perhaps, I thought to myself with a critical eye. In the middle of this huge spacious container-like thing lay a tarp covered object that was at least the size of a fighter and a single computer console that stood flat and thin before the tarp covered item. With a groan I stand up and wander over to the console a bit of my undying curiosity begging to know what this was. Not that falling and not sustaining an injury because of it was enough to draw curiosity on its own, but I was sure all my answers may be on this console.
I reach my hand towards it and as my fingers lightly touch the black panel it lit up quickly showing a strange an unusual angular emblem. My free ankle length black hair waved in the air as a soft wind began to pick up. Nervously I looked around and then with a high pitched squeal that escaped my lips rings of light encircled me each pulsing rays of light into me. My cheeks reddened as I felt the light travel across the contours of my body. As it traveled along my body I felt a strange and wonderful sensation race along my body eliciting a sharp gasp from me. It was a sensation I had never felt before, a sensation that persists for what almost feels like an eternity. The rings suddenly stop and I gasp as my legs and arms are forcefully spread, the rings moved and turned to a soft colored blue, and then without warning the rings pulsed five beams into my body. Two of the blasts strike my wrists, two strike at my outer thighs, and one just above my chest, each causing cries of pain to escape my lips as they sear my skin. Then as sudden as it happened the rings and sensations vanished leaving me to collapse to the ground panting slightly.
My light mocha skin gleamed damply with sweat and my breath came sharply as if I had been running around the island for a good while. Every part of me hurt, and my chest was really unhappy with me having been abused earlier. Trembling slightly with pain and exhaustion I turn a throbbing wrist to face me and my eyes widen as I find a shimmering, glittering, indigo diamond shaped crystal embedded there. The diamond’s pure and clear color had only one discrepancy I noticed as I saw pulses of minute light race in erratic paths deep inside. Biting my lower lip I looked to the right most side of my right thigh and there, as well, lay a diamond shaped crystal just like the one in my wrists. I realize quickly that for every beam that had hit me there was a crystal in those very same spots. What the heck had just happened, and why were these on me now?
The pain began fading quickly and I managed to regain a calmer pace of breathing after a good moment. Taking a deep breath I stood and finding a pleasant surprise as I find my legs ready to hold my weight despite the slight burning sensation there. My indigo eyes fall upon the console a moment later and my a sense of growing dread fills me as I read the message there. [Alterion Core has Initialized and Synchronized.] What did this mean? Absently I rub at the area around the chest crystal, wincing as it stung slightly. The message changed a moment later reading, [Destruction of this facility will commence. Alterion Core must evacuate.] What was this Core, I go to poke the screen but stop realizing that this was likely a waste of time especially if the place was about to self-destruct.
“Evacuate, easy for you to say.” I then notice the opening, it wasn’t a well-lit opening but it was an opening that lead deeper inside and hopefully out. I was sure that this had not been here before, the only opening I had assumed was the one I had come from, but here it was, a dimly lit corridor. The light inside this metal place suddenly turned to a stark red and the wind stopped. I frowned and bolted for the revealed opening and the corridor beyond it became better lit as I entered. As I passed my eyes caught briefly the tarp and I realized only briefly that whatever was under it was now gone. With an uneasy frown I run through the straight and empty corridor coming to its exit with a fair amount of time. Beyond the corridor lay a huge cavern complete with water and a slender makeshift dock. Set near the dock lay a black submersible bobbing gently in the water.
Paying nothing else much mind, I run to the end of the dock and examine the submersible. Slender and black, it looked likely that it could take twenty or so people, a hatch lay wide open near the front, and I worried that I might not be able to drive it. The cavern shakes as something deeper inside detonates and a rush for fire and smoke runs from the corridor I had left. I give a short cry and leap onto the sub and then down its open hatch stopping on the ladder long enough to grab a hold of the hatch’s closing mechanism slamming the hatch shut. Deftly I secure the hatch and slide the rest of the way inside. A sense of urgency propelled me through the short passageway as another explosion rocked the cavern. The control room was pretty close bye and I examine the controls quickly to my dismay I find no way to control the submarine from here. Without warning the submarine jostles and the hum of its engines fills the room, while dials indicated that it was diving under the surface.
“Perhaps it is on auto,” I ask myself as I sit town in one of the leather bound seats that sat before the simple console. “As long as there is nothing in the water then I should be fine I guess.” The lights in the sub turned from its soft white to the harsh combat red and my heart sinks. A tremendous boom echoes through the water and struck the sub shaking it violently. I held tightly to my seat and began to pray. After all I had been spared from a bullet and a deadly fall, god had to be watching. Alarms blare and the hum of the sub changed to a grinding sound. It had been seriously damaged.
Without warning the sub jumped from the water making a loud splash. Nearly thrown from my seat I go the hatch and open it. Climbing out my eyes are met with a horrible sight. The base was burning, my lovely tree among it, but my horror was fully realized when I saw the large and heavy moving fighter, the Titan, hovering before the various building lancing stark crimson red beams into them. Had anyone escaped, what of my team, what of the base personnel? I did have a lot of fun here, even if it was a boring out of the way place.
While I brood the Titan turns its silvery form towards me and I caught the sight of the twin wing cannons glowed as they drew in the particles it needed to fire. I felt my heart sink further with dismay as I realized it had detected me. The Titan’s sensors were extraordinarily far seeing after all, meant to strike at defenders and attackers from a good quarter mile away. There are two flashes of light and with a gasp I raise my hands and close my eyes in a futile attempt to block the beams. I felt the harsh impact of the beams, I felt the heat that felt as if it would incinerate me, but before it got too much I fell into the arms of darkness, her sweet caress easing me into my death. Or so a part of me hoped.
I’m not sure how long I was out, I just know that I felt coldness grip my body. I opened my eyes and found the stabbing harsh light of artificial light glaring down at me. With a moan of discomfort I cover my eyes and attempt to look around.
“Ah, you are awake,” a female voice says suddenly. I blink and look to my right where a woman with long shimmering red hair stood wearing a white jacket and skirt. Sollyn Phoenix Heavy Industries emblem sat over her right breast. Her green eyes stare at me calmly and a small smile touched her red lips. I give her an uneasy smile back. “So this is heaven? I have a question.” The woman raises an eyebrow, “Will you be getting Serenity’s latest album up here?”
The woman chuckles, “It appears that your sense of humor survived the attack, which is good. But no, this is not heaven, not even close to it. It is not hell either so you don’t have to worry about that either.”
“Ah, that sucks. I was just getting use to the thought of being dead.” I give the woman a slight smile. “So where am I? And how in the name that is orderly and good in this world did I not die from Titan’s mid ranged particle cannons?”
“Well,” the woman begins the smile fading slightly. “You are on the Sollyn Phoenix Transport Ship Cayren. More specifically you are in the isolation ward and sickbay of the Cayren. Now as to how you survived the direct blasts from the Titan is still being investigated.”
“Investigated? Perhaps, it was a failure in the guidance systems. You know I am the designer and main technician of the Titan. I’m rather surprised it was able to move actually, the adjustments to the Reactor Core and Drive system weren’t even complete.”
“These crystals,” the woman asks curiously breaking from the subject, “where did you get them?”
Would it be okay to tell her? Well she was from the Sollyn Phoenix Heavy Industries, a member of the Rayze Industry Guilds. That large grouping of corporations and businesses were respected across the nation. “I fell, kind of, into a hole under the Titan’s hanger. I don’t know how far down,” I point at the bullet hole in my tube top shirt, “I thought I was dying you see. Anyway there as some strange computer down there that when I touched it gave me these.” I blink as my right hand gently rubs at the chest crystal. “Well at least the burning has faded. I suppose I should be thankful for being blasted unconscious.”
“Was it,” the woman falls silent drawing my attention back to her. “Was it Alterion’s Cradle?”
“I’m not sure,” I respond a confused look, besides what was an Alterion Cradle anyway? “There were no signs or any other markings, but the computer thing there mentioned an Alterion. Do you know it?”
“Oh yes, I know it intimately.” The woman says with a nod as she crosses her arms. “It is a special item granted to only a special person.”
I look at the crystals embedded in my wrists. “So, I have this Alterion don’t I?”
“I think you do. I will have to have some tests done on you to prove it though.”
“Oh fun,” my tone is flat even if my eyes glitter impishly, “kind of like the tests the military put me through to get on the island.” I raise an eyebrow at her recalling the last time I had been poked and prodded. “There had better not be any perverts where I go for these tests.”
The woman gives a soft chuckle and brushes aside strands wayward red hair. “If there are I am quite sure that you can deal with them well.”
I chuckle at that and with my lilting laugh the woman joins in for short moment. Once the moment had passed the woman sighs heavily and nods.
“By the way I am the CEO of the Sollyn Phoenix Heavy Industries. My name is Lady Pherin Rim and I pleased to meet you Miss Tyrendis.”
I blink at her and tilted my head giving her a curious look. “How do you know my name?”
Lady Rim sighs softly before answering, “Merin told me plenty of you. Especially of your somewhat reckless behavior on the island just moments before the Titan launched. But mostly because your Titan does use one of my heavy duty drive systems.”
“Oh that Merin! Always talking about me behind my back,” I chuckle lightly but the fun was gone again. People had died, people I had known. “Were there any survivors?”
Lady Rim shakes her head, “When I picked you up from the burning wreckage of your vessel, the Titan was gone. I have a team is investigating the island as we speak. So far no survivors have been discovered. Though it should be noted there is no sign of the Titan development team as of yet.”
I’m not sure what to think of that. Had it been an elaborate ruse, a means to steal the Titan and its crew? But who? The soldiers were not from any single nation I recalled. There was no signs of an invasion fleet, no aircraft. It was very strange and it sat ill with me.
“It will most likely take us several days to get you back to Barril, where my headquarters are. I would be greatly relieved if you allowed yourself, free of charge of course, to be examined to make sure that crystals in your body are what I suspect them to be.”
“Well I hope they are not life threatening but I will go with you. After all, it’s either that or I will have to explain to a bunch of stiff necked and paranoid military generals why I am the last one alive.”
