He slammed the glass down, shaking the rickety surface of the bar. This got the attention of his compatriots, gathered nearby. The old and beat up holoscreen nearby flickered in reply. Recent news flashed through the feed, of an Argetlam Corporation security team putting down a protest in one of the western cities of Aquos.
The bastards owned over eighty percent of the planet. The corporation with the cutting edge in everything, and which had decided to own as much of the aquatic planet of Aquos as possible, and made sure that it’s ultra capitalistic ways were imposed. They skirted the line of interplanetary law, but paid off any foreign visitors. The planetary governors were in their pockets, and even the local heroes couldn’t do anything but sign up for sponsorships.
But, there was yet hope. Brand looked to his compatriots around the bar, having already gotten their attention.
“We’ve gotta do something big, y’all. The shinies are getting a little too confident.”
His team looked between each other. It was made up of six people. His brother, called Falconet in this circle, sat to his left, finishing off a drink. The rest he hadn’t known before. The first of them was a woman named Vance, a skilled spy and informant into Argetlam operations. She was a medium ranked executive, and would feed them intel from time to time. The second, a man named Ronald, was a supplier of arms and supplies. He’d given them an explosive device last month which they’d used to blow up an Argetlam convoy. The third, another man, this one by the name of Issac, was an ex Argetlam security tech, and had the cybernetics to show for it. He was the only other one besides him and his brother that had anything close to ‘powers’. He could punch holes in metal, take a tank shell and still move, and jump over buildings. But, the cybernetics weren’t easily maintained. A lot of their group funds ended up opting for paying under the table doctors to keep the cybernetics…snapping. The final member was more mysterious. Shrouded in a black hood, a plain white mask over their face, they called themselves Scale, and they provided the funding for most of their operations.
“Sure, but we’ve already taken a good bit of heat for the convoy. Have to lay low” Roland added
“We’ve got two empowered and a cyborg. That’s gotta put us in more of a unique position” Brand said with a measure of callousness.
“Our powers are good, Brand, but not that good. We only have so many bullets we can dodge. And lasers are even harder.” Falconet added this with a relatively careful tone.
He had a point. The brothers powers were fairly similar, with the ability to pause their perceptions of time. Brand could do so in any circumstance, but only for short bursts. Falconet could do so infinitely, but it ended the moment he moved. Brand’s led him to melee combat, and thus he carried around his blades at his sides, whereas Falconet had his pistols, more suited to be aimed when one could pause and look around at any given time. Both sets of powers were adept at allowing the pair to dodge bullets, but the implementation of the invisible and silent Argetlam laser into the corporations ranks led to direct confrontation getting more dangerous.
“Sure, but if we let them walk over us, we’re no better then the dead.” Some reluctant nods from the group
“Here’s my proposal. We hit them hard, fast, and don’t give them the time to respond. Vance, hit me with a target.”
Vance sighed, pulling up her phone and scrolling through “We have a few factories-“
“We’d just hurt the workers, not keen on that”
Nods of agreement throughout the group.
“…we have a few executive lounges and corporate towers?” Vance continued, offering the ideas forward.
“Too easy. “
More agreement.
“…and then…” she frowned, like she was seeing something she hadn’t before.
“What is it?” Brand asked, looking over with some measure of curiosity.
“…didn’t realize I had the clearance for this, but there’s a new weapon test site on an island, twenty clicks east of here. Newly constructed, not well defended yet.”
Brand had a smile grow beneath his hat. Finishing off the last of his drink, he stood.
“Then let’s not give them any more chances to defend it any further. What weapon are they testing?”
“I don’t have the clearance for that. But it’s not the lasers.”
“Even better. We can actually deal some damage. How do we all feel about leaving in an hour?”
The group looked between each other, mostly nodding in agreement, Ronald moving to stand along with Issac, the former moving to leave to gather some supplies. Vance remained in her seat, shrugging and continuing to scroll. Scale looked to him.
“I’m afraid I won’t be accompanying you. I’m not much of a combatant, and this may be risky.”
Brand nodded. One less person wasn’t favorable, and Scale wasn’t that bad of a fighter, from what he’d seen, but he wasn’t one to anger the money.
“Acceptable.”
Scale nodded, and slinked out of the bar.
Vance then left after a few moments as well, to grab some weapons.
All that was left was Brand and Falconet. The former looked to the latter, who had his hands folded, eyes on the counter in front of him.
“You ready for this?” Brand asked in a stern tone to his younger sibling.
“…I don’t think this is a good idea.” Falconet said, with a bit of hesitation in his voice.
“How so?”
“Argetlam is smarter then this. If it was anything important Vance wouldn’t have access to it, and lasers are getting more portable, so they definitely have some on sigh-“
“Lasers aren’t as much of a problem as you think. Issac can take the hit, I can intercept them.”
“…forty percent of the time, you can intercept them.” Falconet corrected.
“We have to hit them soon, and hard, or they’ll keep gaining momentum. Who knows, maybe it was a slipup.”
“Argetlam isn’t one for slip ups…I’m sorry Ray, but I’m sitting this one out. You should call it off.”
Brand scowled at the mention of his real name. Falconet, or Fletcher as he used to be called, should know better. He probably thought that if he backed out, Brand would call the whole thing off.
“Fine. But when I get back, I want you moved out of the headquarters” He said, standing.
“Ra-”
“Save it.”
Brand said, as he exited the bar, leaving the defeated Falconet behind him.
The boat was coming up on the island. It was a smaller craft, which Scale had procured for them to help the group with getting to missions. It hovered above the water a few inches, and was relatively fast, enough to get them to the island in a matter of minutes. The engine, was thankfully silent, and with a few software and hardware upgrades, it was hard to pick up on scanners. No one would see them coming.
The island itself was pretty small, likely only a mile in diameter, with a few dotting’s of trees and other plants likely placed there during the planetary reconstruction a few decades ago. Earthen planets on an alien world.
However that wasn’t the main attraction. Argetlam Security, armored up and accompanied by at least two security drones per one human combatant, patrolled the beaches in all of their glory. Past the tree line they could see the facility under construction by robotic workers, a compound of some sort, half built already, with some automated turrets splayed across the top. The intelligence Vance had given them let them know of a small cove around the bad, guarded by one man and his drones. They pulled in as quickly as they could, just as the guard turned, two silenced laser blasts took out the drones, Brand throwing himself over the side of the boat onto land and activating his power to effectively stride over without interference and stab the man in the gut in the perfect place possible, and with the upmost precision to prevent him from moving for his own weapon. The second blade then slid into the throat, a quick spurting of blood indicating the end of his life. He kicked the body and the drones into the water, the heavy equipment sinking to the bottom. Brand then gestured his group ashore.
Vance, bulletproof vest on and railgun pistol (a less silent and less invisible Argetlam weapon which could pierce most armor and also separate the lower half of a human from the upper half), Ronald, belt of charges around his waist and rifle in his hands, and then Issac, built in laser gun unfurled. All of them assembled on the shore as Brand sheathed his swords.
“Alright. We all know the plan. Split up, and converge in the center of the facility. Don’t engage the enemy unless we have to. We steal whatever’s in the facility, destroy it, then we wipe our the rest of them. Clear?”
A resounding utterance of ‘clear’ was responded. He nodded, then headed off into the forest, his group splitting off behind him.
Once any trace of his compatriots was gone, unseen by him, he drew his weapons now and began rapidly advancing forward. Generally, the rule with his power was that for every second he paused, it would need a five second recharge. He could push it for up to ten seconds, but he averaged at needing a little less then one. That was what he practiced here. Run for five seconds, pause for one, use it to pivot and scan for threats, advance. Like clockwork, he’d gotten used to the paused perception, the stillness of the paused perception. He wasn’t truly stopping time, and he had to remind himself of that fact during his earlier days. His movements were still happening in real time for everyone else, he could just take them as if things were stationary.
He made it across the forest with no issues and minimal noise made. He hadn’t been spotted, as he approached the half finished compound. He’d chosen to approach on one of the mostly finished sides, since he could most adeptly deal with something like this. He saw the automated turrets on the wall, and the drones around, and got to work. He ran up, and just as the turret flagged movement, flagged his power, and used an extended pause to scale the side of the scaffolding and jab his blade into the central function of the turret, before using it’s extended body to cover as he waiting for a recharge. After ten seconds, he reactivated it for a second, leaping from the side and cleaving a drone in two, before hitting into a rolled landing. After five seconds, he did the same to the other. Hiding the remains in the bushes, he then moved to enter through an ajar side door and into stainless steel hallways. Scanning for cameras after a brief pause, it took two uses of his power to disable them all in this hallway.
He then felt his comns light up. Vance. He pressed a hand to his ear to listen and see through her optical camera.
She was in a darker section of the unfinished segment of the compound. Hand to her side, which was bleeding heavily as if sliced open with a blade. Railgun in her other hand, leveled at the other end of the unfinished hallway, back against a corner.
“Brand, I need your help now-“
Something moved in the corner of her vision, and Brand heard her squeeze the trigger, and the movement vanished…only for the slow movement of what seemed to be two metal tendrils, slithering closer. Brand, by now had broken into a run.
The tendrils had formed together into larger ones, which lunged for Vance. The optical camera went dark, and all Brand could hear was the tearing and piercing of flesh, and a scream heard through the entire island. He broke into a sprint-
He stopped. Chiding himself. He needed to be quiet about things, not running ahead. He pressed himself up against the wall around the corner, as he heard the sound of an Argetlam solider rounding the corner. He paused just as he did, slicing the man’s head clean off, and catching it and the body before it could hit the ground, tossing it out a nearby hole before advancing onwards through the more complete parts of the facility.
After taking down a pair of drones in one pause, he ducked behind another wall, approaching the rendezvous point now. A small smile on his face. This was going even better then he thought it would. That was when he saw his communicator ping.
Making sure no one could hear from his position if he whispered, he picked it up.
“Brand, I’m being followed, some kind of monster, five heads an-“
A yell, before the communicator cut off.
He sat there, for a moment, before he started to move, his footsteps covered up by the sound of an explosion on his side of the complex, which caused him to freeze.
He had paused. The explosion. Ronald, he’d triggered the explosives early. Unorthodox, but as long as he still had some left for the facility at large, it would be fine. He knew that it would be best to steer clear of the blast radius, Argetlam security would be swarming over it in seconds. So he turned down another hallway, skipping to take care of the security cameras with the clockwork levels of precision that he expected of himself. This was going better then he could have anticipated, with a building confidence in the operation swelling within him.
Based on the layout he’d seen before he’d arrived, Brand knew he was close. Just a few turns away, then they’d reach the central chambers, where they had some kind of reactor, deactivated, but ready to be turned on at a moments notice. They’d strap the charges to the reactor, then set off a sound beacon, getting the drones and soldiers up close before blowing the place sky high. They could then likely pick off what was left with no real issue.
Smirking, he turned into the final hallway, he saw the archway which led to the central chamber, he could smell the sea air in the various unfinished areas of it all. He was close. Before he could see through the archway and into the central chamber, however, he saw Issac turn the corner, battered and injured, bleeding from what little flesh he had left. Parts of his metal body were warped and contorted, like exposed to an unreasonable amount of heat. He looked to Brand.
“Get ready, it’s coming-“
He turned his weapon around to face the hall he’d just stumbled out of. Brand drew his swords and prepared to advance, when rounding the corner were four large metallic tendrils, clustered together before splitting apart, each ended with what appeared to be large, crude, but still gleaming metallic jaws, small pockets of curled wires and lenses acting as ‘eyes’. Issac squeezed the trigger on his laser just as Brand paused, running forward and moving for a jab, a three second pause, which destroyed the one head. The laser blast destroyed another. But the stumps didn’t stop moving. The one Brand cut knocked him off his feet, just as more raced around the corner, the injured one keeping him pinned, exposed metal parts almost piercing his armored vest, just as the rest swarmed Issac. First, one of his metal arms was ripped off, next, a hole through his chest. Next, the flesh on his face was burrowed into like a drill through wet wood, metal spiked teeth tearing through flesh, not in an animalistic way, but a very clearly artificial one, something calculated, something cold, something lifeless. Viscera and blood splattering onto the metal parts surrounding it, as the rest of the body and parts twitched, trying to break free even if the hosting body surrounding it was ever so clearly dead. Brand stood, and charged, in a final attempt to save his friend.
He got up. He’d tripped. He was so close to the rendezvous. Damn construction sights, always something getting in his way. They’d blow this place sky high soon, though, and then all of this would be over. He’d show his brother how wrong he’d truly been, and how they did stand a chance in all of this.
He brushed himself off, noticing the smallest bit of blood trickling from his head, and the slightly dented armor. A hard fall.
He passed through, into the central chamber. In the center, sat the reactor, in three pieces. Two large hulks of metal which would form into an archlike shape, and a central core which was made up of a purple body and a baby blue central core. Deactivated, for now.
It disgusted him. And now he’d fight back.
He was the first to arrive, but soon after, Jane rushed into the room, slightly bruised, but alive. Ronald was next, full explosive belt at the ready. Finally, Issac, cybernetics glowing as he moved in.
“Are we ready?” Asked Brand
Ronald nodded, moving for the central core, taking explosives off of his belt and beginning to prime them. Brand was thrilled, Jane and Issac moving closer to him and preparing to back away, when suddenly, Brand heard a small noise behind him. On instinct he paused.
Looking behind him, he saw, inches from his back, a mass of metal gnashing mouths and tendrils. He backed up rapidly, drawing his blades, and just as he resumed perception at two point five seconds he called out “Everyone, behind you!”
But they didn’t move. Just giving him confused looks “What the hell are you talking about?” Vance said, as the mass of heads and tendrils moved past her. Roland looked up from his task, to say “There’s nothing here, buddy” just as four heads slithered between his legs. Issac, finally, tilted his head “Nothing on my sensors.” just as his optical implant honed in on where a head should be. Brand didn’t know what was going on, but didn’t find himself keen on finding out. After backing off and parrying one forward head with his blade, he recharged his power and activated it again, leaping over and through the mass, cutting where he could, and pushing it as far as he could go. Two seconds. Three. Four. Five.
He’d cut ten heads by the time he’d gotten to seven seconds, having slid under them and into the hallway, moving into a run. He saw the source by the time he’d reached eight seconds.
A massive creature, surrounded in a wreath of the thin metal tendrils, propped up on a six legged metal chassis. Two large metal heads rested on it’s shoulders, above a human torso hooked up to a dozen machine parts. One arm entirely encased in metal, ending in another ravenous maw, the other seemingly normal, but pale enough to see each blood vessel and vein, a metal clamp seemingly keeping it attached to the body at all. The head was most disturbing. The closest thing it had to a human part. Mouth agape, eyes sunken and nearly not present and cheeks near collapsed.
Brand’s eyes widened, but in his last second, stabbed a blade forward and through its torso.
His perception resumed, the torso slumping forward, tendrils dropping.
Brand followed it up with a second stab, pushing both blades further in.
Only to feel a painful sensation in his torso. As the two heads on his shoulders looked down at him. Eyes narrowed, somehow.
Two small holes bored straight through. He moved to pause, but it was still recharging, as two heads grabbed his arms from behind, Brand letting out a scream of pain as his flesh was ripped apart, as more and more heads gripped on and PULLED, more holes bored into him with searing heat as the shoulder lasers fired again and again, spikes piercing any exposed flesh to freeze it in place, as one final maw began the process of mechanically and procedurally ripping into his skull with mechanized voracity, searing pain accompanying him far into the void of death, his million regrets going with him.
Falconet watched as the crew returned, mostly unscathed. He looked to Brand, who looked back, and smiled.
“Just wanted to say I’m sorry, Fletcher. I thought about it…and I want you back in the crew.”
An apology. Rare, from Ray. Falconet smiled.
“I’d love to. Just let’s be more careful next time.”
“Sure, in fact, I’ve got a plan for us the moment we get back to headquarters.” Brand said with a nod.
Falconet nodded, ready, before turning to walk back to the headquarters with but one in tow.
Kindling And Miscellany 