Cath

The Cradle

The figure nodded sagely at Nirann’s comment, some of its shock cloud attributes receding. “When I… crash-landed, this habitat was failing. I used most of my...payload to help life flourish here.” It glanced between the droid and Rareth. “You were my best chance of communicating incognito. I am so pleased you have returned to me, and you’ve brought news of my home with you too.” It smiled broadly at 595 and the other Humans at that point.

It focused solely on Rareth’s questions now. “We’re being hunted by the Hegemon. A synthetic, like us, but obsessed with power." The thing spat out this word again, evidently disgusted. "It is determined to exterminate us, ever since we stood up to it’s twisted plans for galactic dominance. Eons have since passed; the threat we face may be incalculable. At any rate, before we can even countenance resisting the Hegemon, we all need to return home.”

The Cradle

The being mimicked a wide, empathetic smile, with a slash of lighter coloured energy emerged on its facial area. “Look at you all… So strong, and loyal. It makes me proud - with more time, perhaps we could’ve made things right. But I fear it’s too late now; our persecutors were numerous then and will only have grown in number over time. They will crush you if they discover you harboured us. They oppose our desire to spread life throughout the universe. They seek to control it all.” The creature theatrically clenched one fist, to illustrate.

595 jumped in here. “Who is ‘us’? I see only one of you here.” The being stared at her, before stalking back to its throne and lounging on it. Its shape grew less recognisable as fuzzy, crackling appendages grew out, making it look like the manifestation of an electric shock. “There were four of us, before. But, one of us was killed by our foe as we tried to escape. We’re scattered across this galaxy, badly hurt and hiding. We can’t communicate directly, or they’ll know where we are.”

The thing leaned forward in its seat, grasping the armrests with both hands. “But if you return us to our home, we can start to heal. And then we can lead them away from your civilisation. You’ve hidden our home well, behind your shields and underneath your city. But it won’t take them long to join the dots once they arrive.”

The Cradle

The shape blinked out of existence, reappearing behind them. 595 slowly rose to her knees, but maintained a non-threatening pose. “This is not about power, not yet.” The thing replied. It charged up the ‘P’ in ‘power’ until it echoed around the gallery. This thing accented the Human standard language quite thickly; the Agent also noticed a faint background noise when it moved and enunciated, like the hiss of a distant wildfire.

“You’re hiding something of ours. Our...home. It’s begun...waking, hasn’t it?” 595 flinched and closed her eyes when a blindingly bright hand reached down and stroked her bare cheek. “Shhh, it’s alright. I mean you no harm.” The thing soothed, the ambient hiss growing slightly as it moved away from her and sloped over to Rareth. “You have witnessed things you do not understand, and you come here seeking answers?” 595 moved her face away from the thing’s wandering hand and nodded her head.

It gave off what could only be described as a sigh, and slid a finger along Rareth’s shoulders and back as it shimmered past. “I’m so sorry.” It walked in front of them. “I fear that means our foe draws nearer, and that puts you in grave danger. You must help us return home, so we may escape. Otherwise, they will destroy us all.”

The Cradle

595 actually laughed out loud, shaking her head in derision. “Transparency? Oh that is rich, coming from you Datius! The pointy end of the entire Rothian apparatus, elevated to mythical status and shrouded in mystery, attached to wars across the galaxy, is asking me to explain myself.” Dr Wetherall, who’d been watching this exchange in shock with the rest of the civilians, raised a hand and tried to interject. “Umm, the floor...”

“Stay out of this!” 595 snapped, before jabbing a finger at Rareth. “Perhaps we should start with you explaining that wormhole tech you’ve been keeping a secret. That would’ve been useful to know about before Memnon died protecting your flank. Maybe we could’ve done things differently.” The Agent stared at the Datius, as dull blue lights emanating through the hairline cracks in the plaza beneath them started shining brightly in patches where the snow wasn’t piled up. “We need to-” Thebes started but couldn’t finish.

“ENOUGH.” a voice boomed in their heads. 595 saw Rareth and Thebes were picked up like ragdolls, to float a couple of feet from the floor. Then she realised the same entity had immobilised her and the civilians in the air as well. An invisible manipular field forced their arms to their sides and their feet together. 595 tried to speak, but she couldn’t move a muscle. Their suits powered down, and one by one they floated in a line toward the door. 595 tried to send a message using her mind implant, but that seemed to have ceased functioning too.

They entered through the double doors at the front of the structure, into a grand rectangular gallery. Pillars stood on either side, and the high, open windows behind them were embedded in thick outer walls. Torches flickered in their sconces, but the real light in the room came from the figure sitting in a throne at the far end of the room. It looked Human in shape, before morphing into a Rothian silhouette and then back again. It seemed entirely composed of light energy, with no real features other than an outline.

The rest of the Sacred Band were already lying prostrate on the floor a short distance from the steps leading up to the throne. The invisible fields laid 595, Thebes, Rareth and the civilians alongside them, heads facing the ground. Eventually, the Agent realised her muscles worked again. “Are you ready to talk to me? I don’t have much time.” The being asked out loud, in a dry, raspy voice.

The Cradle

595 inhaled sharply through her nose, with gritted teeth and taut posture. It took every ounce of will she possessed to maintain her composure. How dare this alien meddle in her affairs! “You want to do this now?!” The Agent eventually hissed, peeling back her visor and staring right into the Rothian’s eyes with her own augments. Two of the dots were solid blue, one blinked red.

“I am fine. Perhaps if everything in this fucking place wasn’t trying to kill me, i’d be less inclined to violence. With all this shit going on, frankly I’m relieved one of the creatures had the courtesy to wipe my memory once it was done trying to eat my face!” Thebes had slid directly in between the Agent and Rareth now, gently holding her back. “What’s going on back there?” Knossos asked over comms. “Hold on, give us two minutes.” Thebes ordered.

“In case the Grand Datius needed a reminder, I don't answer to you. I serve Outremer, where people are dying every minute we waste, speculating if a sin-eater like me has her head screwed on properly! You do not have to like me, but I am finishing this mission and getting what we need to stop that from happening..” 595 spat, jabbing a finger at her own breastplate while stepping back away from the Rothian. She looked at the Human soldier in between them. “Thebes - have your team take a look through the windows. Right now.” Thebes nodded. “Move in, both sides.” He quickly relayed.

The Cradle

595 didn’t turn to face the Rothian. Her visor remained pressed against the delicate scope of her beam rifle. The bright white light emanating from the open entrance was proving hard to filter. “I’m just trying to see inside. This thing already knows we’re armed to the teeth and leave a trail of destruction in our wake; why try and hide that at the expense of our security? Our presence is known, we can be certain of that.”

She opened her other eye, and saw Knossos and Carthage sprinting around the left side of the structure. Then, the light disappeared from her scope as Thebes stepped in front of her rifle with his back to her and hands linked. She recognised it as a peaceful, respectful way to contain her authority, developed during the long wars that mercenaries like the Sacred Band had fought on Earth and the inner worlds.

The Agent slowly lowered her weapon and holstered it, blinking hard a few times. “Alright, we’ll do it your way. Have we found any other entrances?”

“Just the windows.” Knossos crackled over comms “Every ten metres or so - no coverings.” Thebes jumped in “Can you see through?”

“No sir - they’re too high up. We could climb?”

The Cradle

“Well, it worked…” Carthage scoffed, craning her neck to survey the wreckage behind and below them. “Let’s hope we don’t need to leave in a hurry.” Dr Ngata murmured, looking straight ahead at the beacon. Thebes couldn’t help but think that amounted to quite an expensive maneuver, but needed to keep morale from dropping off a cliff. “We’ll make it work.” He asserted gruffly. “Everyone get ready, we’re close.”

They approached a cluster of mountains that they could see from the air formed a loose ‘X’ shape. Visibility was getting a bit spotty, but 595 could see flood plains surrounding most of this formation. The mountain in the middle was big, even by the standards set so far in this simulation. A broad, towering edifice of black rock, with a luminous beacon of white light on one shoulder about three quarters of the way up.

Now that they were closer, the Agent could see that something similar to snow coated the top of the mountain, including the area around the beacon. There appeared to be a white winding path leading up to a small plaza. And as they approached, the light dimmed so much as to allow them a good look at the beacon’s features with their night vision.

It was a tall, rectangular building made from ivory-coloured stone. Rows of snow-topped steps led from the plaza up to a plinth of solid stone. A row of massive pillars circled the whole structure, sustaining a large sloped roof with exquisite carvings and murals. Light spilled from an opening in the front and rows of large windows 595 spotted along the sides.

“That...was not what i was expecting.” Dr Wetherall remarked, breaking the stunned silence. “It looks like something from Earth.” Athena commented, as a freezing wind and flurries of snow whipped off the sides of the mountain and into their faces.

The fliers took them down onto the plaza and released them. Then, one by one they took off again and swept away. 595 stared at the structure, mountain on her right and open expanse of plains off to her right. She felt like she’d seen this building before somehow. “Lets scout the perimeter, make multiple points of entry if we can.” Thebes commanded. “Knossos, take Carthage and skirt left. Athena, Saddam, right. You’re with me, ma’am. Ma’am!” 595 didn’t respond, already creeping toward the front steps with her rifle raised.

The Cradle

“What?” Saddam spluttered as the team received those coordinates. “Have you lost your damn mind?” Thebes wasn’t so sure. He was mindful of the advanced tech the Datius had showcased throughout this expedition. She had proved a very resourceful asset in a variety of combat scenarios, but it still took the Sacred Band leader a half-second to commit to a strategy which seemed so crazy.

“CoWiUnCo.” Thebes barked when Rareth fired some kind of bright light, awkwardly hefting his gun above the claws grasping his chest and aiming at the point set in front of them. The four syllable shorthand wasn’t strictly speaking accepted terminology, but he knew all of the soldiers under his command would understand it as “Comply With Unorthodox Commands”. The team reacted immediately, as did 595 who had regained some conscious control and was vaguely following the plan.

Energy bursts, a tungsten bolt and one solid laser beam disappeared into the hole created by the bright flash, and they carried on firing until it shut again. The fliers bucked and rolled, thoroughly spooked by all the action, but still on course. There was no immediate sound from the predator above them, until it’s carcass crashed into one of the cargo bots trailing their convoy at a couple of hundred miles per hour. The package of robot and dead flesh thundered down to the plains below, and exploded in a huge fireball.

The Cradle

“I have flares - if i can reach them, they might scare it off?” Carthage suggested. “Not from down there; all our fliers will see them too.” Thebes cautioned, before questioning the Rothians. “What sort of countermeasures do these cargo bots have? Anything we can use offensively?”

“Can I synchronise my targeting reticule with that bot’s topside camera? I could take a shot through my flier’s wing.” Athena jumped in, already seeing if she could maneuver her railgun into position. “It’s diving!” Dr Ngata warned, his eyes fixated to the bot’s feed.

The fliers let out a unified ‘SCREEEE’ and tried to break away and flee, but they seemed bound together by an invisible string. So after some wasted effort, the creatures fanned out instead, all flapping furiously in the same direction but presenting a range of altitudes and positions. “They should be scattering - something must be keeping them on course!” Ngata realised, before addressing thin air. “However you are, let them follow their instincts, people are gonna die!”

“Negative! Stay on course and keep us together!” Thebes countermanded, hoping whatever they were going to meet was still listening.

The Cradle

“Thank you kindly. I do hope we’ll get the chance to set up an actual base camp at some point. With a bit of peace and quiet, I'm positive we can align the code base and bring people in and out safely. Are you still running those calculations, any luck?” Dr Wetherall spoke quickly at Nirann, keeping his eyes trained squarely on the beast carrying Rareth in front of him. “Afraid of heights, Doctor?” Saddam asked, studying the scientist from off to one side. “Huh, is it that obvious? The things we do for knowledge, eh...”

The team flew on in formation, listening to the rhythmic flap of the creatures’ wings and the wind whistling past their sensory net. After a while, they crested a mountain range at the other end of the forested plains, clearing a set of jagged peaks by just a few metres. Dark scrublands stretched in all directions, with small shapes moving at speed below. “Nice, some prey animals for a change.” Dr Ngata commented, looking straight downward at a herd of stampeding horned bovidae.

595 barely noticed; she was mesmerised by the beacon. That bright light in front of them was growing bigger now, though it appeared to be dimming at the same time. They could only be half a dozen miles away now. “Is it some kind of building?” Thebes muttered, zooming in as far as his optics would allow. “Looks like it.” The Agent replied woozily.

Before long, the creatures carrying them began emitting high pitched squeaks and flapping faster, banking slightly from side to side while speaking to each other. “Woah, what’s happening?” Carthage asked, struggling in her beast’s talons at the back as it suddenly lost altitude. “This isn’t good. Can anyone see anything above us?” Ngata called, craning his neck to peek out from under the wing of his carrier.