Fragment of Destiny

The message disappeared after ten seconds. There had been no sender information just simply the one word in red. Quickly Samuel sent another link to Elroy.

“Did you see that alert?”

“Yes, I received it too, everyone in the Imperium did, not just the military. I am trying to pinpoint its origins now, but it seems to have been a code word for sleeper agents inside the Imperium. I am getting reports of friendly fire among the forces returning from Crescent.”

Automatic gunfire rang out on the other side of the interrogation prep room door. Samuel scooped up his v-2 rifle from the table and quickly checked his supplies. One flash grenade and only six standard rounds.

“Elroy do you know where they are holding Tess?”

“They have her in interrogation room two. Samuel, what are you doing?”

If Corwin really did have enforcers on his side, Samuel needed to find Tess before they did. Extending his barrier as far as he could Samuel reached out trying to locate potential threats. Outside he could sense the presence of two people moving away from him down the hall towards the second interrogation room.

“I need to get Tess out of here I think they are after her. Can you cover me?”

“Working on it.”

Opening the prep room door, Samuel stepped over the body of the poor soul who had been posted outside. His stomach turned as he quickly stooped to take the dead man’s unfired mag. Stowing the low mag Samuel slipped in the fresh one as he moved quickly down the hall. Again a short burst of gunfire filled the air, this time distinctly in the direction of the secondary interrogation room. Rounding the corner to the prep room Samuel found the guard in the same position as the one before. Slumped over in a pool of his own blood. Judging by the bullet holes, he at least had attempted to return fire. Just inside, someone was shouting for the interrogation room door code, then two shots rang out. Someone screamed in pain and the yelling continued.

The door to the prep room was open as he approached. Retrieving his flash grenade, he pulled the release and waited, mentally tracking the fuse countdown. He wanted his enemy to have as little time as possible to react once he threw it inside. The grenade bounced once as it passed the thresh hold, then the dampeners on his helmet went to max as a loud popping sound came from the prep room. In an instant, he had identified his targets two men clad in enforcers uniforms but not full battle armor. A single shot center mass was enough to drop each traitor to the floor.

Beside the two dead men huddled a wounded novice, and across the room from him a dead senior novice. Checking the hall Samuel shut the door behind him as he breathed a sigh of relief at least Arthur had not been here when the attack happened. Pressing his barrier past the wounded man Samuel checked for more people. A bullet hole in the window to the interrogation room distorted the view. There were two people inside but more than that he could not tell.

“I am Sr. Novice Specter. Can you hear me?” Samuel asked as he felt a redoubling of fear the wounded man’s vision seeming to return.

“Yes.” He said looking around the room. “I take it you killed them. Thank you. Do you know what is going on?”

“I have someone working on figuring that out. For now, all I know is some enforcers have gone rogue and are turning on their comrades.” The meager explanation seemed to satisfy the novice. For the moment he ignored Samuel and instead focused his attention to the bullet wound in his right thigh.

“Samuel you need to get out of there now. You have a rogue squad of enforcers headed your way.” Elroy chimed in Samuel’s helmet.

“Is there anything you can do to distract them?” Samuel asked as he punched in the code to open the interrogation room. A bullet zipped past and Samuel jumped back from the door.

“Wow, Hay! I’m on your side, I’m on your side!” Samuel shouted.

“Prove it.”

“Your partner out here can vouch for me,” Samuel said looking to the wounded man.

“He is one of us you can come out.” The wounded man shouted.

“Samuel, what the hell is going on in there?” Elroy asked over the coms.

“A misunderstanding,” Samuel said.

“Look you have to get out of there now. Like now now! I have messed with the friend or foe trackers on the heads up displays for the incoming troops, but that won’t throw them off your trail if you’re standing still!”

Beside Samuel, a jumpy enforcer exited the interrogation room his weapon, a handgun, still pointed in Samuel’s face.

“Put that thing down will you and help me up.” The wounded novice said beckoning the other enforcer over, an under marshal.

Samuel pushed past into the room to find Tess handcuffed to a metal table. She looked terrified even if her aura betrayed it only slightly.

“Hey give me your keys,” Samuel said swatting at the would-be interrogator. The under marshal hesitated for a moment.

“I said give me your keys, that is an order!” In full combat gear, his rank would not be displayed so the officer blankly complied.

Tess flinched away from Samuel as he approached to unlock her. He paused a second and removed his helmet. At once, he could feel a wave of confusion and relief wash over her.

“Samuel, what’s going on?” Tess asked.

Samuel quickly unlocked Tess’s cuffs and pulled her from the chair. “I’ll fill you in on the way. But we need to get out of here now!” No one questioned him.

“Elroy, which way should we go?”

“Go left, then left down the next hall, the second door on the right will be a stairwell. Take it down two levels, and you will reach a skimmer bay. Hurry!”

“This way,” Samuel shouted making a left out the door. He tried extending his barrier but was forced to pull it back as the intense fear that gripped the rest of the group threatened to overpower him. Samuel cursed under his breath. The one with the limp was slowing them down too much. He felt torn between safeguarding Tess and making sure everyone got out ok. He had already reached the stairwell with Tess while the other two had yet to make the last corner.

“What are you waiting for! You need to go now! They are already at the secondary interrogation room!” Elroy screamed in his ear.

Samuel cursed again feeling the weight of the inevitable decision. He had to safeguard Tess at all costs.

“Keep going,” Samuel said to Tess as he keyed open the door. He could feel the shock from the two enforcers like a knife, the realization that he was leaving them to die. Then he was gone, following Tess swiftly down the stairs. The door clicked shut behind them and a moment later the crack of automatic gunfire filled the hall above. Samuel instantly felt sick.

“I have overridden the security and autopilot functions of one of the skimmers,” Elroy said dropping an orange marker on Samuel’s HUD. A moment later a skimmers side hatch opened and they both piled in. Before either of them had a chance to reach the controls they were off and headed for the exit.

In the viewscreen, he could see a squad of enforcers entering the docking bay from the stairwell. Bullets pinged like rain on a metal roof as they failed to puncture the heavy armor. With Elroy piloting the craft Samuel climbed into the gunner’s loft. The roof hatch opened as the seat rose into place. The puncher cannon turned on its three hundred and sixty degree swivel as he took aim.

Already the rogue enforcers were spreading out and taking cover before the weapon was fully online. He sent the first shot right into the stairwell door. It exploded in a shower of concrete and fire. It was the only shot he could take before the skimmer entered the lift and the door slammed shut.

Quickly the skimmer rose to the surface, and the mid-day light washed over him. Samuel let out an audible sigh of relief, their immediate surroundings were clear even though the sound of conflict rang out across the city.

“What the hell-” Tess began, but Samuel waived her off.

“Elroy are you still there?”

“I’m here.”

“How bad is it? And where are we headed?”

“It’s bad, but not as bad as I had originally thought. The remaining forces have returned from Crescent and helped Marshal Fin in putting down the rebels around the airfield. Which is where I am taking you.”

“Is Dolan still alive?”

“He is but he’s under attack. I have been able to catch glimpses of footage from the capital building, and it is swarming these things shrouded in a thick purple mist. They can move directly from level to level and room to room at will, and bullets seem to have no effect on them. For now, Dolan has managed to stay one step ahead of them. It’s a mess in there, most of Central’s officials including the overseer have already been killed.”

“Elroy, I need you to take us to the capital. I have a way to stop them.” Samuel said remembering what Larry had said about Tess.

There was a brief pause, then the skimmer changed course heading for the center of the city. “Done, you will be there in three minutes. Fin already has a team in route. You should be arriving within seconds of each other. How are you going to stop those things?

Samuel looked at Tess but said nothing.

“Samuel, what the hell is going on?” Tess demanded. It was good to see some emotion returning, even if it was frustration. It was a good sign that the damage he had done would not be permanent.

“Corwin sent out a trigger code to loyalists amongst the enforcers. It is a mess. I don’t know how many of us are left. Bad as things are, I am afraid they are only going to get worse. Larry told me about Corwin, the malravians, the wraith hunters, and you. He said they would be coming for you and that you are the only one who can stop them. Tess, I need to know was he telling the truth?”

“I don’t know what he told you, but… in the past, there was a group of people that could fight him. Corwin killed them all during the Halsinion Imperium war. Larry believes that I am the next in line to obtain the ability.”

“Then how do we trigger your ability? To use it as a weapon?”

“I don’t know we have not been able to figure that part out. The wraiths just turned human on their own and could be killed…”

The skimmer slid to a stop just outside the capital building, Fin, and his team, already there. Samuel watched on his HUD as the orange marker indicating Dolan dropped rapidly from level to level as it plummeted down into the central tram station below the capital building.

Samuel and Tess made for the ramp leading down into the station as groups of frightened civilians rushed past them in the opposite direction. Inside, the station housed a vast network of crisscrossing tracks carrying in trams from every sector across Central. Large bridges and walkways spanned the massive cavern as each level was exposed creating one giant room. The floor of which was a twenty-foot-thick slab of clear glass atop an equally impressive pool of water. Through all of the crisscrossing tracks and floors, Samuel spotted Dolan as he dodged this way and that, phasing through cars and levels at will.

At last Dolan spotted his reinforcements. “Fall back! They are impervious to our weapons.” Dolan shouted over the com’s as he continued to fall.

Fin and his team did not listen. Instead, they opened fire on the mist wraiths. Each shot vanished out of existence as it struck the mist just as Samuel’s had in Crescent. At once several of the forms broke away from the group and dove towards Fin and his men. By now Samuel and Tess had nearly caught up, but something was wrong with Tess. She was panting heavily and clutching her chest. A terrible scream escaped her lips, and she collapsed to the floor in a fit of convulsions, her crystal pulsing in radiant purple and gold flairs.

The first of the purple forms began to change. The mist peeled away like the shedding of a false skin. Bullets pierced them now, and the almost human forms staggered under the impact of each shot, before collapsing to the ground naked. The bullet-laden bodies smoked and fizzled as the last bits of mist disappeared like water under the second summer sun. The other mist beings halted their approach before quickly vanishing back through the walls.

“Tess, are you ok? Tess!” Samuel shouted shaking her. Her entire body shuttered and her eyes were clenched shut. Pools of tears ran to the ground beside her, as she gasped for air.

“Sir, we need to talk,” Samuel said as Dolan materialized from the ground beside him.

“Yes, we do,” Dolan said eying Tess who now lay whimpering at his feet.