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The Cradle

“There may be something even worse down in that valley! And besides, even without Carthage’s armaments, we have enough munitions between us to blast through any tight spaces.” 595 countered, exasperated. She glared out across the valley; patches of water glimmered in the very faint light. “Look at it, the whole valley is sodden. If we go down there, it’ll take hours to go the long way around this mountain. At that rate, we’ll need to make a camp out in the middle of nowhere. Is that really what we want?”

595 surveyed the waiting group. She knew that if ordered to, the Sacred Band would follow her into the jaws of hell. Most were surveying the area through their weapon scopes to avoid looking at her. Athena was even laying on the floor with her sniper rifle fully deployed to scout the valley. It was the Rothians and Human scientists she needed to convince. “If we set up camp, Nirann and I could try to fully reconcile the code base and bring in reinforcements, so to speak?” Dr Wetherall offered nervously.” 595 snapped right back. “True. But who knows what kind of attention that’ll attract? We could be spawning them right into a trap.”

“Our mission is to bring everyone back alive, ma’am. Our close quarters element is without a suit. The Sacred Band are conditioned for long nights; we can keep watch. If we can get this transit station online, there is always the option of pulling out too.” Thebes advised, assuming a non-threatening stance. 595 breathed in deeply, trying to control the onslaught of borrowed feelings. It wasn’t hard to feel like the group was ganging up on her.

The Cradle

“Hmmm...interesting.” Dr Wetherall grumbled, tapping the part of his faceplate in front of his beard as he scanned the ocean of symbols. “No wonder our gear isn’t working properly. We’re only using about seventy percent of the code base correctly. Well done on this conversion architecture, old boy! I’m going to save a copy and try a few things I thought of while dangling from that tree back there.”

They continued following the rapids for another hour in relative silence, except for a few exchanges and observations between the scientists. After a little while, the Sacred Band lowered their weapons and assumed a quicker march than before, meaning they made up some of the lost time. Carthage easily kept up without losing breath, often jogging backwards and encouraging the civilians to hurry.

Eventually, the river slowed to a languid crawl. The incline levelled out steadily until they rounded a corner onto a flat ledge. Off to their left, the river disappeared inside a cavern attached to the side of a towering mountain. The bright light they were headed to was distantly visible above the entrance. In front and below them, the canyonsides fell away to reveal a huge valley nestled between four mountains, shrouded in gloom. “There’s a path here.” Athena peered over the edge of the ridge. “We could scale down it, find another route through this mountain range on the other side of the valley.”

“That’ll take all day." 595 replied, then pointed to the cavern. “That’ll take all day. This river must lead somewhere; we could shave hours off our journey.” Thebes shook his head. “I don’t like it. Lots of tight corners and not a lot of exits.”

Song Reference time

She bases what she's drinking on the place and time of day
Says that she loves California but she hates LA, okay

Song Reference time

You're making me a wreck, you're kissin' on my neck, but that's not better than sex. You're getting me obsessed, sending me dirty texts-

The Cradle

“There’s nothing normal about this.” Dr Wetherall grunted, watching Thebes’ video feed from underneath the lake. “Some of the fauna here is definitely outsize, but why?” Dr Ngata mused, watching the same footage. “It could be a combination of factors - perhaps an arms race at the top of the food chain? Or a big surplus of energy being used up, maybe? All just guesswork at the moment.”

Dr Wetherall nodded sagely before jumping back in. “Biology aside, I’m afraid we’re ill-equipped to analyse the ‘intelligence’ of that worm or any of the other creatures just now. All our artificial intelligence experts are stuck in the real world. I’m just a Systems tech who didn’t have the killer instinct to become a Terraformer or the connections to make it as a Builder.” Dr Ngata put an arm around his colleague. “He’s too modest! You also make a great cup of camomile tea, don’t you?” Dr Wetherall chuckled wearily, patting Dr Ngata on the back. “If you’ll stop dropping tissue samples in them, yes!”

595 kept quiet, but she could feel some type of external intelligence right at that second. It presented as more of a feeling than any discernible readout. Some icy presence cupping her face with their hands and staring into her eyes. Hungry? Yes... She looked around at the other members of the team; none of them appeared to have noticed. The icy hand turned her head back so it faced forward. Why do i see you, alone? 595 deactivated her implants and squeezed her eyes tightly shut for a couple of seconds. When she opened them again, the presence was gone.

“Speaking of which...perhaps we should work on the language divergence problem some more while we walk. What do you say? Could help us bring in more help when we set up camp.” Dr Wetherall asked Nirann, pulling up the latest workings on his suit’s wrist interface.

The Cradle

“Me too, droid! My armour can match what’s on my skin, but it’s forbidden during operations.” Carthage sighed, hefting her murderous little weapon and walking on. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, Nirann. Let’s get going.” 595 chuckled in response to the imposing metal figure.

They advanced through the lakeside forest in dead silence. They were tightly packed together to avoid being picked off, apart from Rareth, and kept their weapons trained at all trees within a few metres of their formation. However they needn’t have bothered; the tree all remained perfectly statuesque, not taking the slightest bit of notice.

As they neared the far end of the basin, the trees thinned out. The team clambered carefully up a rock fall and then scaled the sheer cliffs two at a time. A slight breeze was wafting the humid air when Thebes completed their ascent.

They were on the right side of a rushing rapid. White foam coursed along the top of the water as it careened down a sharp slope and into the basin below. The path they were on wasn’t heading directly at the bright light on the mountainside, but there weren’t any other options immediately available. Smooth canyonsides loomed up on either side. “Let’s go.” Thebes ordered.

The Cradle

Carthage took her SMG back from Thebes; he’d kept it safe for her after she’d vacated her suit. She checked it over while walking to where all the gear was stashed. Athena met her in the middle - the sniper’s faceplate peeled back to reveal sparkling green eyes, an angular dark brown face and a relieved smile. Carthage and Athena locked hands and touched foreheads briefly. “You can’t get rid of me just yet.” Carthage grinned.

“The Datius is right. Get mobile everyone, we’re behind schedule.” Thebes concurred, moving to stand near Rareth with his rifle raised. “You should recon the waterfall, we’ll catch up.” He suggested.

“Nice tats.” 595 commented, moving to the centre and picking up the cargo she’d dropped during the firefight. Carthage looked at her. “Thanks, spook. It’s mood ink, so i actually can wear my heart on my sleeve.” The soldier stuck her tongue out, and 595 noticed it was separated for a few centimetres down the middle, like a snake. She glanced at Carthage’s whole body tattoos again and grunted with surprise.

The intricate artworks were all slowly moving around her body. An ancient bireme was sailing across choppy waters on her left arm, toward an enormous city of white buildings on a hill with a palace on top across her chest. A sea monster with too many limbs engulfed a lighthouse on the other arm. On that wrist, there was an anatomically correct Human heart, beating very rapidly.

“Very nice. You ok with your load?” 595 asked, shouldering her pack. “Yeah, i’ll be fine.” Carthage huffed, grabbing up some of the equipment but Athena took it off her. “You’re travelling light, we’ll share your load.” Memnon backed toward them, still training his repeater at the trees nearby. Athena hooked some of the webbing onto his armour.

595 looked at Nirann, who was all ready to move. “Good shooting back there. Are you at carrying capacity?”

Hello there! It's ya boi

Welcome to the Guild! If you need anything, please let us know

The Cradle

The creature fought a desperate rearguard action to keep the energy blade away from its body while it tried to escape. It’s fleshy body warped and elongated as it gradually wiggled down a tight hole underneath it. Eventually, it detached from the gigantic river delta tentacles that fed into the lake bed on either side, and completely disappeared.

What followed was an enormous explosion from Carthage’ suit self-destructing, which forced a jet of superheated vapour back up through the hole and into the air above the lake.

---

“We’re operational. The trees stopped moving just before that explosion. What was down there?” Knossos asked, helping 595 to her feet while he replied to Rareth. The Sacred Band were mostly looking out at the lake, and the giant plume of water.

The tree trying to bludgeon 595 to death had frozen in place, it’s tendrils loosening enough for her to slide right out onto the floor. She looked back at it; it had been an impressive specimen at the start of the fight. Now, targeted carbine shots from Nirann, still standing in the perfect centre of the group, had stripped it back to little more than a stump with a few core branches. They had held onto her for dear life, trying to choke their prey. But, they’d ultimately met their match in the Agent’s state of the art lightweight combat armour.

“Nothing good.” Thebes responded to Knossos’ questioning out loud, emerging from the lake in a cascade of water with Carthage still tucked around his waist. “But we got her out.” Carthage gasped for air, then grinned wolfishly and athletically uncoupled from her team leader. “Cry your filthy heart out, you alien bastard!” She roared triumphantly, dacning ecstatically around in a circle before spitting a big wad of phlegm into the lake. She then grasped Thebes’ arm in a respectful gesture, and pointed at Rareth. “Thank you both. For saving me.”

Carthage’s olive skin was covered in exquisite skin art, from neck to toe. Her short dark hair had lain pinned to the back of her head but now hung in wet clumps to her forehead, ears, and nape. Her eyes were jet black and she wore a tight navy-issue crop top, shorts and sole-covers.

595 helped Dr Ngata back to his feet. “Thank you, for helping.” She said, by way of reconciliation. He nodded solemnly, dusting himself off. “I’m sorry - for earlier. You were right, i..-” 595 put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, we’re all okay.” She was still angry at the scientist, but had to be careful with her emotions in here.

“Show us the feed. I wanna see.” 595 called, striding back towards Nirann and the rest of their gear.

The Cradle

The beast gurgled in distress, shuddering to try and shake off the assailants. With Rareth’s help, Thebes managed to regain his footing and haul Carthage some of the way out of the beak. Her suit was battered and sparking from where the jaws had crushed it. But try as they might, she wouldn’t come free entirely. The beak had locked in place, with just her head and torso protruding.

“My legs are stuck on it’s teeth!” Carthage yelled, just as the creature’s body dropped dramatically into the sediment. Where before they had to climb up the beast to get to the mouth, now it was level with the lakebed. Thebes looked around him and shot at a couple of tentacles. “We’re sinking.” He concluded grimly. He turned back to Carthage. “You’re going to have to eject your suit. I’ll carry you to the surface.” She nodded, and her suit started flashing red. “I’ll give the fucker something to chew on.”

It was Thebes’ turn to nod. He looked at Rareth and then back to Carthage. “On three, we’ll haul her out and then get clear. One, two, three!”

The creature fell further into the hole it was either sitting on top of, or busy digging, as the front of Carthage’s suit peeled neatly away. A cloud of bubbles erupted out and up to the surface as she lunged forward, pulled towards them by both arms. She wrapped her legs around Thebes midriff, and he savagely kicked the empty shell of her flashing suit. It fell fully into the creature’s mouth, and the beak sealed shut.

“Go, now!” Thebes called, turning and firing at the tentacles as they all rushed forward. Carthage pulled his sidearm out and joined in. Thebes set his jet pack to use everything it had and pushed off toward the side of the lake, near the top.

The propulsion unit kicked in, shooting them through the water above the creature like a missile, milliseconds before tentacles collided where they’d been standing.