Legends of Amacia Attack on Tartarus

As they finished the meal, Hannibal told those present of his intention to take Leila to the great hall where Ezra Karac’s bones were. Enoch, Kida, Ana, Selina, Andrew, and Xavier decided to accompany them. He also informed them that afterwards, they were going to Srandi to open the keep, and that Leila was coming with them. This surprised everyone, including Leila.

“Is that a good idea, milord?” Leila asked.

Hannibal didn’t hesitate when he said, “Yes. You shall come, Leila. Everything at the fortress is secured except for the Keep. I want you there when we open it. Just call it a hunch, but I think you may have something to contribute. Besides, I heard you speak of it with such fondness. You should be there.”

Leila shrugged and said, “All right, milord. I’m at your command.”

Hannibal smiled and reminded her, “You don’t have to call me that, Leila. Hannibal will suffice. So, shall we prepare?” Leila nodded and Hannibal turned to Elias, saying, “Elias, check the great hall. Make sure the spiders aren’t crawling all over it. Speaking of which, how’s the prep going for getting rid of those things? Do we have the means to take them out?”

“Yes,” Enoch answered, “Nemesis and Magnus are preparing a large carite charge to take care of that infestation as I speak. From what I saw, the amount of carite should be sufficient to blast the entire mountain to rubble.”

“That will be more than sufficient, supposing that we place it in the right spot,” Hannibal replied, “I’m thinking the Mausoleum since the nest is directly above it.”

“Great minds think alike,” Enoch stated, “We all agreed the Mausoleum is where the charge needs to be detonated because of its location in the base of the butte. It should be enough heat and blast pressure to obliterate every one of those fell creatures. It’s a shame that we can’t preserve the alien city down there, but it’s a sacrifice we must make for the sake of all humanity. The Spiders cannot be allowed to live and spread.”

“I agree,” Hannibal concurred, “That city is a marvel and enigma like all those relics with the strange writing on them. Please tell me you’ve had Elias documenting the city using the portal. If we must destroy it, the least we can do is have a detailed record that it existed.”

“I have indeed,” Elias stated, “We started doing it when you told us to find out everything we could about Leila’s sarcophagus and its connection to the Mausoleum.”

“Oh, right,” Hannibal answered, “I forgot. What did you find out?”

“Well, we first did a complete scan of the entire butte from the summit to its base, which obviously included the watchtower,” Elias reported. “We recorded it down to the finest detail, even the strange writing and those crazy statues you reported seeing outside the temple. The city is far larger than what you saw. From what the scans found, the city surrounds the lake on all sides, with some of it actually being submerged in the lake itself.”

“Now there’s something I didn’t expect,” Hannibal admitted, “How big is the lake?”

“A solid three leagues across and one hundred cubits deep at its deepest point just beyond the Mausoleum,” Elias stated. “The majority of the lake is about forty cubits deep with a plunging shaft on the far side of the Mausoleum from the way you came in that’s a third of a league wide. The shaft tapers to a point in its bottom as if the sides had collapsed in.”

“That sounds like a volcanic vent,” Hannibal suggested.

“That’s what we thought,” Elias answered, “The entire butte is what’s left of an ancient volcano, but why would they build such an advanced city in its depths? The cavern and lake seems to have started off as a natural formation, and then the architects of the city came in and conducted colossal excavations to make place for the city and the Mausoleum, which seems to be the centerpiece of the entire complex.”

“I knew that place didn’t belong,” Andrew commented, “I felt it in my gut. Something other than humans, the Emperor, or even his alien minions built that place. It doesn’t belong there.”

“Indeed,” Hannibal agreed, “...but I had no idea the city encompassed the lake with some of the ruins being drowned in it. However, I should have figured it when we saw the Temple façade. It’s obvious the structure was built long before the lake drowned it. Were you able to determine with the portal scans what the city, temple, and Mausoleum were built of?”

“It appears the city and Temple are built with local stone, most likely from the butte itself,” Elias reported, “However, there are anomalies in some of the structures where foreign building material was used, most of it consisting of an unknown crystal form.”

“What about the Mausoleum?” Nathanael queried. “What were you able to tell about it with the portal scans?”

“The Mausoleum is the one structure there that is not built from local materials,” Elias reported. “The portal scans were emphatic about that. Nothing about the Mausoleum matches anything of this planet: not the metal alloys, the crystals, or even the stone used to construct it and the platform it sat on. Everything it’s made of is unknown to us. Furthermore, it’s far larger than what you saw for the platform it sits on goes down one hundred cubits and is firmly anchored into the native rock by six pylons six cubits across diving another eighty cubits into the native rock below it.”

“Whoa,” Hunter crowed, “That’s wild, and very strange. Why would the builders go to such an extent to anchor the Mausoleum?”

“I think the more appropriate question is what were they trying to tap?” Hannibal asked. “If they wanted to merely secure the thing, anything from ten to thirty cubits would have been more than enough. The only reason to sink the pylons to eighty cubits down is because there’s something there they wanted to harness...an energy source maybe. Elias, were you able to tell what the mineral structure of the rock was at that depth?”

“Yes,” Elias replied, “The rock at that depth, which is far below where the lake shaft stops, is some form of highly radioactive minerals that I’ve not seen before. Moreover, the rock at that depth is extremely hot and under a fair amount of pressure from below. Just out of curiosity, I scanned below it and found an extremely hot, volatile magma plume a quarter of a league below it.”

“Ah, ha,” Hannibal chimed. “That explains it. They were tapping both the radioactive energy of the rock along with the magmatic energy from the plume, which is apparently energizing the radioactive elements. It has to be. After all, the power plants at Tiamat, Acheron, Kartoom, and here directly tap the magma and heat energy of the planet to generate its power. However, the Mausoleum is different from the power plants we know of. They didn’t sink the probes deep enough to fully access the magma plume. Those power plants tapped directly into the magma plumes. The radioactive isotopes must have been their primary goal with the Mausoleum. They needed a stable long-term energy source to power the Mausoleum, and possibly everything else in their city. But how did they siphon the energy into the Mausoleum? Did you find something else when you scanned the Mausoleum?”

“Indeed I did,” Elias stated with a wry smile, “When we scanned the Mausoleum, we discovered strange etchings all over every piece of it all the way down to the bottom of the pylons. It was so small that we had to use the extreme zoom on the hologram to see them. They remind me of the circuits we see etched in our machinery here, but it’s of such a complexity it baffles me how it works. Anyway, the portal scans showed energy flowing through these etchings, moving from the bottom of the pylons up to the main structure of the Mausoleum. We found the same etchings on Leila’s sarcophagus. The circuit etchings appear to channel the energy to the crystals embedded in the device. It’s obvious that both are part of the same mechanism. The Mausoleum is undoubtedly a machine of alien origin, so ancient and complex we cannot fathom who or what built it.”

“I knew it,” Nathanael crowed, “The Mausoleum is an ancient alien machine placed here long before humans occupied this planet. I’d wager the Etherians were responsible for it.”

“That’s a distinct possibility,” Hannibal agreed. “But let’s not get the horse before the cart. We haven’t seen anything yet that links the Etherians to the city and Mausoleum, not that the evidence isn’t there. We just haven’t seen it because it’s not been studied in depth.”

“That’s true,” Elias stated, “We may have gotten detailed scans of everything, but we haven’t had the time to truly analyze what we recorded. All I can say for sure is that the city, Temple, and Mausoleum are definitely of alien manufacture and ridiculously ancient, obviously created long before we humans occupied this planet.”

“When there’s time, start analyzing what you’ve found,” Hannibal ordered, “That entire complex is of major importance.”

“Yes, sir,” Elias replied. “I’ve been doing that in my spare time. That place really intrigues me. I’d like to find out who made it and how old it really is.”

“Good,” Hannibal said evenly, “Since you’ve scanned the entire mountain, how big is the spider’s nest? Did you find out where the Queen was hiding?”

“The majority of the nest is in the large shaft above the Mausoleum,” Elias reported, “It reaches all the way to the summit of the butte and but doesn’t come near the lake, for obvious reasons. That monster in the lake obviously kept them away from it and the city near the water. However, the nest did extend to portions of the city away from the lake and into several other caverns connected to it. The queen seems to have been hiding on the northern side of the lake in the city well away from the water. There’s a large temple-like structure there near the cavern wall that she apparently took as her den. The structure has an open roof with direct access to the rest of the web.”

“Did you see the bitch?” Hannibal asked.

“Yes,” Elias stated grimly. “She’s damned near as big as that tentacled monster you killed at the Mausoleum. And strangely, she seemed to know I was watching her because she hissed and snarled, snapping at the hologram as if trying to attack me. Just the sight of her made my blood run cold.”

“I’m sure it did,” Hannibal agreed, “That bitch is not a creature you can reason with. We’re nothing but a food byproduct for her and her brood.”

“Did you happen to see whether the spiders extended their nest to the water after we evacuated?” Nathanael asked.

“Not really,” Elias admitted, “I didn’t have time. You needed vital intelligence on Kartoom, so I started preparing for the attack on Kartoom.”

“That’s all right,” Hannibal stated, “We needed the intelligence on Kartoom more than we needed the information about the spiders. But now, it’s something we need to know. I fully expect with Nidhoggr gone, the queen will have expanded the nest to the lake. We’re going to have to be quick about planting that bomb. Otherwise, we may not make it back. She knows we’re a threat to her and her brood.”

“That’s true,” Enoch stated. “We’ve already intruded on her once, killed her offspring, and escaped. She’s not going to tolerate another intrusion, which is why I’m hesitant about letting Leila go there to see her husband. You guys took a major thrashing getting her out of there. Why do we want to tempt Fate again?”

“Because Ezra’s bones are there,” Hannibal insisted. “Leila deserves closure. She should be allowed to retrieve the bones of her husband.”

“I didn’t say we wouldn’t do it,” Enoch replied, “I was just pointing out the dangers involved. It’s going to be hard enough to get in there and plant the bombs in the Mausoleum. But if we go get Ezra’s bones first, we may stir up the nest again, making planting the bombs even more difficult.”

“I see your point,” Hannibal said, rubbing his chin with his hand. “But unlike the city, temple, and Mausoleum, which we now have a record of thanks to Elias, Ezra’s bones are mobile and cannot be sacrificed. They’re precious to Leila, and he is one of our venerable ancestors. To blow him up with the rest of the butte when we have the means to extract him would be a sin as far as I’m concerned. He deserves a proper burial and homage. We’re going to do this because he is one of us.”

Enoch raised his hands in a surrender gesture. “All right, all right,” he conceded, “I just wanted everyone to know what the dangers are. Ezra’s Tower is considered hostile territory because of the Spiders. I suggest we be quick in removing Ezra so we don’t stir up the spiders any more than necessary.”

“That’s my intention,” Hannibal stated. “Get in and out as quickly as possible. After all, unlike the last time, we know exactly where Ezra is sitting, so we don’t have to go looking for him.”

“When shall we do this?” Enoch asked.

“Now is as good a time as any,” Hannibal stated. “I want everyone armed, prepped, and in the portal chamber in a half hour. Do you think Nemesis and Magnus will have the carite bombs ready by then?”

“They’re all set,” Nemesis called out as he entered the living area. “The bombs are sitting in the portal chamber now.”

“Excellent,” Hannibal stated, rising to his feet. “How much carite are you using?”

“Twenty cairns,” Nemesis stated, “In terms you’re familiar with, that’s sixty pounds. That’s enough to blow the entire butte to dust.”

“I should say so,” Hannibal agreed.

“Isn’t that a bit excessive?” Hunter asked.

“Not when you see how aggressive the Spiders are,” Andrew stated bluntly, his tone filled with hate for the spiders. “Those beast need to be blasted to bits. There can’t be as much as a piece of a leg left.”

“I must agree,” Ana called out after listening quietly to the conversation about Ezra’s watchtower and the spiders. “The spiders cannot be allowed to live in this world. They’re an invasive alien species that should have never been allowed on this planet.”

“How big a blast will that be?” Xavier asked.

“If the bomb we’ve prepared was detonated in a city the size of Antillia here on this island, it would vaporize two thirds of it and flatten the other third,” Nemesis reported. “The bomb we’ve built has a blast radius of fifteen leagues in the open air. It’s a city-killer, without a doubt. However, because we’re setting it off deep inside the butte, the mountain should contain most of the blast, limiting its radius even though it should vaporize most of the mountain. The blast radius should be a couple of leagues at the most setting it off where we are. Also, Ezra’s tower is in the middle of the Dune Sea, so there’s nothing for the blast to hurt other than the sand.”

“Whoa, that’s one big punch,” Hunter stated.

“Indeed it is,” Nathanael agreed, “I saw what about ten pounds of it did to Kaal Bek. It’s the most potent explosive I’ve ever seen short of nuclear or antimatter bombs.”

“Carite is the Emperor explosive of choice,” Nemesis stated. “That’s why he uses it so regularly. It has the punch of a nuclear device without all the nasty radioactive side effects of those devices. Trust me, when this bomb goes off, the queen and her brood are going to be nothing more than ash and smoke in the wind spreading over the Dune Sea.”

“That sounds good to me,” Hannibal stated. “Nemesis, since you’re here, I want you to know that before we burn those spiders to ashes, we’re going to retrieve Ezra’s bones from the great hall. Leila needs to see her husband buried in a proper manner to gain closure.”

“Of course,” Nemesis stated, “I have no trouble with that. Are you going to blow the butte after that?”

“Yes,” Hannibal answered. “But we’re going to have to be quick and move quietly as possible. We don’t want to alert the queen to what we’re up to.”

“Ah, I see,” Nemesis growled. “Say no more; when is this going to take place?”

“I want everyone who’s coming to retrieve Ezra in the portal chamber in a half hour,” Hannibal ordered. “They are to be armed for battle in case the spiders try to ambush us. Once Ezra’s bones are safely here in the Red Tower, we’re going to the Mausoleum to blow that whole place straight to hell.”

“Right,” Nemesis rumbled with a nod. “I’ll make sure everyone is properly prepared. Shall I have a gurney there to transport Ezra’s remains?”

“Yes,” Hannibal stated. “That would be very useful since Ezra’s nothing but bones now.”

“It’ll be there,” Nemesis stated. “I’ll see to it myself. Now, if you will excuse me, I have much work to do.” He bowed stiffly and left.

Hannibal clapped his hands and said, “So do we all; come, my friends. Leila needs to retrieve her husband and we have an infestation to destroy.” He grabbed onto Leila’s wheelchair and guided her out of the dining area. Everyone else followed except for Electra, Nathanael, George, Ben, Elle, and Kahn, who elected to stay and clean off the dinner table.