[Story] Tales of Annihilation -- Latest episode: #29 Blood and Fire IV

Somehow I missed #18 until now but I have to say that it was a twist as always! These humans present an interesting angle and I can't wait for your next chapter!

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Legendary

Nero gazed at the core crystals inside the engine through the eyes of a tiny little spy bot. They seemed to be intact; they were clearly not the cause of the engine failures that occurred since the intrusion of Synchronous forces.

Perhaps, the massive flood of saltwater in about seventy-four percent of the ship. Saltwater seemed not to be a friend of sensitive components. It corroded the rare metals, that the humans used to build their precious ship, at a rather rapid rate.

Malfunctions followed malfunctions aboard the Valhalla. The situation seemed rather hopeless, as the depths of the ocean on a hostile planet was not the safest place for such crippled spaceship. Whoever was victorious on the surface, they were definitely on their way to find him.

He had absolutely no data about his current location. All he knew, the ship was lying somewhere on a large rock on the bottom of an ocean, in a wide chasm that is several thousand kilometers deep. The pressure was so high in such depth, that only a few of his units was able to go outside, but even those only for a short period of time before ultimately being crushed under the water's tremendous weight.

The Valhalla's massive armor for the most part was still intact, it was able to withstand the pressure. Hundreds of Nero's fabricators roamed the corridors of the ship to seek for damaged parts and repair those, but he was running low on metal. He commanded some fabricators to seek for things that were not necessary for survival, and to reclaim their metal content, but it proved not to be sufficient.

He was seeking his blueprint database constantly for units that would be efficient in the outside environment. However, with no success, as he was not designed for underwater warfare, and so, he was not given blueprints for underwater units. The space was his home, the endless abyss... that is where he could feel whole, that is where he belonged, that is where he dominated.

The sensors spotted a small metal vein, not quite too far from the ship, but despite being close, it was still way too far. There was no unit in his disposal that was able to go out there, extract the metal, and bring it back to the ship without considerable losses. It was up to him to create a solution, he had to create a new blueprint on his own; a new unit to survive the pressure of the depths.

However, Nero's own internal power core did not have the capacity to support the process of computing. For that, he had to connect to Valhalla's power line, and siphon all energy that the four fusion generators could produce. The entirety of the spaceship turned dark, most functions disabled, such as the radar, the internal sensors and the lights that were unnecessary for Nero and his mechanical minions.

Many other functions disabled as well; most of which Nero did not know what purpose they served, only that they were active at the time he found the ship, floating in space. During the many years he possessed the Valhalla, he never really bothered to find out the reason for the existence of those systems.

The process took no longer than two minutes, but for the time, Valhalla turned dark.


[…]


The new schematic slowly came together on his personal interface; soon ready to be born from metal, ready to fulfill its task. A heavily armored drill, capable of navigating in the depths of the ocean without being smashed by the pressure.

After a few finishing touches, it was ready to be produced in masses. Unfortunately, mass producing it was not an option, as the resources to work with were rare. Nero ordered some fabricators to gather the metal required for his creation, then build it inside one of the hangars which were not yet flooded.

Hours later, a small crew of seven were prepared to swim out to gather the metal required for the repairs. As the hangar door opened, tremendous amount of saltwater engulfed everything, and all of the air escaped in a few moments. Nero though, became aware of his mistake of letting out all that air out all at once, as there was a probability of enemy sensors spotting the gigantic bubble racing towards the surface.

Nevertheless, the seven deep-sea miners headed towards their destination at relatively high speed despite the environmental difficulties. It took them no longer than twenty minutes to reach the massive metal vein.

As they were about to reach their destination, the internal sensors of Valhalla became aware of something unusual...

Somehow, the life support systems activated themselves inside the ship. That, however, was not required by Nero and his crew; it was used by the creators, the humans, who once served and lived on the ship as the crew. According to the databases he'd found on the ship, nearly seventy-thousand humans served on the ship under the command of Grand Admiral Leonard Foster, a legendary war hero who decimated countless commanders in space battles during the war between the machines and humans.

Nero figured it was best to look into the case, as it drained some valuable energy, not very significant, but the generators could not function perfectly at the time. As he browsed through the countless entries in the logs, an alarming notification distracted his attention: Somewhere inside the ship, a fabricator suddenly stopped functioning.

The place where it occurred was not far from his position, so he found it was best and fastest to inspect the case himself.


[…]


It was a large empty storage room with several tiny puddles all over the floor. Saltwater was recently pumped out of the place. The fabricator was heading towards the hallways when the signals suddenly disappeared. As Nero entered the room through the massive door that was carved for him to fit inside, he spotted the fabricator right away. It was in pieces and still burning on the white flooring, a few meters away from the wall. He scanned the remnants of his minion, and could clearly see it was attacked by something. Perhaps there are some Synchronous units still on the hide, he concluded.

As he turned back to head towards the exit, he wanted to command his guardian bots to search for the hidden enemy, but then in a sudden realization, he remembered he had them reclaimed, as he needed the resources. He turned back to the burned out fabricator, and reclaimed the wreckage with his nano-lathe gun. Every single gram of metal was a treasure deep in the ocean.

As he headed towards the main bridge, he received more and more reports of disappearing fabricators. There was something clearly wrong. He began to walk at an increased speed back to the bridge, and in the meantime, he sent his commands to every still functional combat unit to search the entire ship for the signs of the enemy, and to eliminate if possible.

As he entered the main bridge – that was increased in size so Nero's massive body could fit in – he was welcomed by thousands of notifications on Valhalla's interface. However, he was for some reason no longer able to read them. Nero was startled for a moment, but then he tried to overcome the issue by connecting himself to the ship's main system.

The next thing that happened shortly had struck him unexpectedly.


(Continued in next post due to character limit)

“Welcome aboard my ship,” an unknown voice said. “You are not permitted to be on board of the Valhalla, and because of that, we are going to do whatever has to be done in order to get rid of you. I have commanded my crew to retake the ship from you usurpers; you either die here... or leave immediately.”

“You most likely are wondering who I am...” the voice said. “My name is Leonard Foster. I am Grand Admiral of the Progenitor Starfleet, and I am the captain of the flagship, Valhalla.” he said.

“Progenitor? You lie to me; they are all gone,” Nero responded to the person he thought was an impostor. His calculations of the possibility of humans being present aboard his ship was rather insignificant; there had to be an explanation.

Perhaps... perhaps the calculations are based on incorrect information?

He'd immediately sent out about twenty fast moving tiny spider scouts. They were fragile and so small they were not bigger than the little finger of an actual human being. However, they were quick moving and effective at exploring locations where the mighty mechanisms of war, nor the signals of radar would be able to find their way. Nero commanded them all to seek out undiscovered areas of Valhalla.

He suspected it was a small group of sentient creatures that lived deep in the ocean, waiting for prey. They may have found their way into the ship. That is very possible, as there are many openings on the hull. He thought. But if that is the case, how do they know the name of the previous captain?

However, his suspicions were soon proved to be wrong... One of his scouts found their way into an area that previously was barred away by a thick door, camouflaged as some wall in a hallway. It led to a massive chamber in the heart of his battleship. A gigantic piece of the ship that on the schematics he'd found was displayed as part of the main power generator.

The chamber crossed fifty-seven floors vertically, with a floor plan resembling an almost perfect circle with the diameter of three-hundred meters. All over the walls there were some sort of capsules, all of them wide open. Nero recognized them; they were hibernation pods, designed for humans of the Progenitor Coalition.

That room alone was enough for thousands of living humans to be hibernated for an eternity without suffering significant damage to their organic health upon their awakening.

The scout approached one of the capsules, and scanned it... The quick analysis had shown that it was recently opened. Nero concluded that they may have ceased to work when he drained all the power of Valhalla to create the new blueprint, then a safety mechanism kicked in to awaken the dormant humans.

More and more of Nero's crew disappeared, and the scouts had found three more chambers full of empty hibernation pods. The situation was obviously hopeless. Nero was considering accepting the shameful defeat...

… However! There was still one thing left: The deep sea miners he'd sent out to gather metal almost finished gathering, and were about to return with full load. In about twenty minutes they would return to the ship. Nero headed right away towards the hangar where they were to enter the ship.


[…]


By the time he arrived to the hangar, the miners were already there. Using the metal they had brought in, Nero began the construction of new combat units to defend his ship from the hidden invaders.

A squad of quick moving, lightly armed bots headed out to destroy the enemy. Together, they marched across the empty corridors without meeting any enemy for hours. Nero wondered, did they just disappear?

However, Nero knew it well better, seventy-thousand humans don't just disappear; they are out there, and are plotting something. He could do nothing, though... he just continued creating more and more bots to fight the enemy. Some of his fabricators managed to return to him, and help him with the production. The energy, though... he had only his own, limited power source after having lost control of Valhalla.

His tiny spider scouts were desperately searching for signs of the enemy, but the ship was gigantic with countless corridors and tunnels. It tells a lot about the size of a spaceship, if seventy-thousand humans can just hide on it without being detected.


[…]


Two hours later, one of his scouts ran into an EMP field. It still transmitted some signals for two more seconds before finally deactivating. Its last known location was in a ventilation tunnel, seven floors below the secondary bridge, at the opposing end of Valhalla from where Nero was. An obvious choice, Nero thought.

His scouts stumbled into the EMP field one after another; there was no way to avoid it, the entire rear of the ship was barricaded by the field, and it was strong enough to deal with most of his units. Nero desperately tried to create a battle plan that would help him overcome this problem...

The secondary bridge was built in an isolated part of the battleship. However, it was not as well-defended as the main bridge; it merely served the purpose of a spare control room in the event of the first being destroyed. The engineers however, were so confident the main would never be taken out, that they obviously did not put too much effort into defending the other.

It was easily accessible from the outside, as it was located near a hangar which was generally used for maintenance purposes. Normally, nothing would be able to reach even remotely close to the hangar door, but the current situation was not any near to being normal. Valhalla was designed for space combat, not underwater combat; the thousands of cannons all over the surface of the battleship – those were capable of destroying nearly anything in space – all sat there, rendered useless by water.

The plan was ready. Nero opened the massive hangar door manually, and saltwater flooded in and embraced him. He let go of his ornate cape that he liked so much, and it was taken away by the current of water, as it would only slow him down. He then proceeded to climb the surface of the ship.

The powerful magnets built into his feet allowed him to walk the hull. The pressure was overwhelming, but his neurosteel armor withstood.

The water slowed him down greatly; it took him five hours to reach the hangar door. When he was about to arrive, he prepared to breach the hangar door, using his Uber Cannon, but as the weapon charged, his internal sensors detected activity near Valhalla's thrusters. Everything was trembling below his feet; the ship slowly started to emerge. He was pushed back by the force of water as the ship headed towards the surface; despite being held on the hull by magnets, he struggled to keep his balance.

Within two minutes, the ship reached the fresh air above the vast blue ocean. Valhalla headed towards space right away, but it was severely slowed down by the massive weight of water that was still inside, finding its way through countless openings back to the blue ocean below.

Nero no longer had to fight against the push of water. He climbed back to the hangar door, and fired the Uber Cannon. The massive metal door melted away in a moment, and revealed what lied inside...

Nero faced a giant cannon as he gazed into the room. The next thing he saw was a giant blast, and in the next moment, he was falling towards the water.

He pointed his arm towards the ship that was heading away from him, and fired his cable gun. The two-hundred meters long metal rope quickly intercepted the ship, and the neurosteel hook caught into one of the cannons on the surface. Nero pulled himself slowly towards the ship as it reached above a gigantic continent below them.

The landscape below was devastated by war; forests burned down to ashes, mountains shattered by orbital bombardment, wide plains decorated by countless craters created by artillery shells still streaming.

As he hung on the end of the cable, being tossed by the wind, he tried to figure out how the humans managed to repair the ship in such short time.

The plating of Valhalla was very close, yet still so far. Nero saw as the cannons slowly turned towards him and aimed... that was the moment he realized; he had failed.

The firepower of Valhalla was feared for a reason; a volley of powerful neurosteel shells impacted against his armor, and the metal rope had broken; melted by the overwhelming heat of explosions.

Nero fell towards the hard ground, along with countless of small pieces of his armor, where the Nameless Alliance was waiting for him to finish what the humans had began. The Valhalla slowly disappeared in front of his artificial eyes, heading into the abyss, where he once belonged...

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Oh. My. Goodness. You're a master at this!!

The humans return... to finish what they started... Run commanders or meet your doom...

Wow, that is one amazing chapter! I loved how you introduced these humans. Great work! I found a couple of errors though and highlighted them below:

1st post, 1/3 of the way down
The entirety of the spaceship turned dark, most functions disabled, such as the radar, the internal sensors and the lights that were unnecessary for Nemo and his mechanical minions.
Many other functions disabled as well; most of which Nemo did not know what purpose they served, only that they were active at the time he found the ship, floating in space.

2nd post, top
“Welcome aboard by ship,” an unknown voice said. “You are not permitted to be on board of the Valhalla, and for that we are going to do the necessary measures to get rid of you. (This part is just worded a little oldly) I have commanded my crew to retake the ship from you usurpers; you either die here... or leave immediately.”

Fixed! Nice finds! Thanks!

As for the last one, I thought about it, and I changed it to:

"... and because of that, we are going to do whatever has to be done in order to get rid of you."​

I'm glad that so many of you are liking the story so far. Remember; if you have questions or found something weird, or you simply have some critique in your mind... don't be shy!

Yep, that reads better. Glad I could help! Keep up the great work!

Wow. You continue to amaze me.

Another well-disguised bump before heading off to work.

Rolling in to throw up a random question...

What would you folks think... Based on what you've seen so far from me... um... do you guys think I should take my attempt on writing and publishing an actual book?

I'm just seeking for ways to replace my horrible job.

I received an email about this on my phone and IMMEDIATELY wanted to say the following:
"OH MY GOODNESS YES"
as you can see I agree with the idea
Out of curiosity, what is it that makes your job horrible?
Edit: I don't speak for everyone by any means, so if anyone want to object (why though?), go ahead and do so

Physical labor in a factory. Boring as hell, and the wage is pretty much low. I've been seeking for a better job for some months now, but with very little luck...

The thing is... I have a couple thousand words written so for a little story, but the spare time I have is rare, and I'm not very confident about my skills at the moment.

It would be a medieval fantasy themed story with swords, magic, dragons and all that other stuff...

I think you're doing very well with your current PA sci fi story and would definitely be interested in reading a book by you but you should look into finding an editor. Your writing is awesome but you need someone to help you clean up some of the rough spots and grammar errors. Keep us posted on this; it sounds like an awesome endeavor!

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Blood and Fire III

Eldora's bed was rather comfortable... She did not wish to get out of bed, but her stomach started growling. That was the obvious sign of hunger. The food that Nyl's worshipers made tasted horrible, but there was nothing else, and it was the last thing Eldora wanted to die of starvation in a place like that.

She crawled out of the silks of her bed, then quickly dressed up into the soft clothes they gave her. As she stepped out into the hallway, she stumbled into one of the worshipers in red robe; their masks still scared her at times, but she kind of got used to the sight, as that was what she'd seen every corner across the massive building that their underground hideout was. The person looked down at her... the mask had a strange smile painted on it. They always seemed to smile. The person did not speak, just watched. Strange, Eldora thought.

Alexandros told her not to trust the smiling faces, as they have some really sneaky smile behind the mask. “Little lady,” he said... he always called her little lady.“The smiles hide some evil plans on the real faces of each person. Some of them were good once, others were not, but today, all of them serve a god that is evil. You can't even trust those without the robes and masks. While some of them may be truly innocent and merely seeking a safe place to be, most of them are criminals on hide. Be careful, little lady!” she recalled his words. Eldora wondered if the person gazing at here ever lived a life that was without sins, but in the end, it didn't matter, and most likely she would have never found out.

She left the person behind without saying anything, and headed towards the stairwell to climb to the floor above, where the diner was. She carefully watched for each step, as the stairs were old in that part of the complex. The cult renewed the human building for the most part, but forty-eight years seemed to not be enough to finish it all.

The diner was a scary place to be; full of red robed people whose faces she'd never seen. There were some friendly faces among the crowd, though... faces like Alexandros' always cheered her up. He always sat with his company at the end of one of the seven long tables that crossed the hall. They were all very old, and usually they shared war stories from during the Plutonium War, which happened back in the old planet, long before she was born.

After a long wait in line for her food, she thanked the kitchen girl – a young girl with purple skin and lilac eyes – then as she took the plate, she turned around, and headed right to the end of the table, where Alexandros and his company was; five ancient veterans, speaking of feats of war.

“I can clearly remember the day, when the entirety of the Seventh Battalion charged against the mighty defenses of Werkshield without artillery support. The poor fools followed General Hades' orders without questions, and they all died. I watched from the ramparts how each poor man was shredded by thousands of bullets, raining down at them from the top of the walls.” said Teros Palathagon, one of the five old men. Teros had deep orange skin and eyes, several small wounds across his face, caused by a fragmentation shell that landed next to him at the siege of Werkshield – he told about that story a few days back.

“Yes, the butcher was clearly out of his mind during the war. Many young men died that day at Werkshield.” said Bexx Narmal, who sat beside Teros. Bexx was the oldest among them. He had worn blue scales and yellow eyes. His mouth looked terrible; several small wounds around his lips, caused by needles. He once told how he got them...

Eldora remembered his story clearly: During the Plutonium War, they were stationed by a small town, called Ulest, and one day, General Hades, the feared murderer at the time, crossed the town, and had taken a look at the camp. Bexx was guarding the gateway along with two others when the general arrived. They were chatting during their post, and when Hades arrived, the fact that they were talking during their post angered him so much, he ordered their mouths to be sewn shut.

… Bexx considered himself lucky, as many people were executed for less at the time.

“Oh, yes... Terrible days... indeed...” said Joras Vox, the third old man who sat next to Alexandros, facing Bexx.

“I'm glad the old bastard died,” said Arbor Peam, the fifth of the five old men. The deep red of his eyes gazed into Eldora's soul as if he could read her mind. Paired with his snow white skin, the man looked even more strange and out of place. Arbor was born albino.

“Wasn't your brother also at Werkshield, Teros?” said Alexandros. “I remember you mention him a few days back. What happened to him?”

“My brother... I don't know if he is alive or not today.” he replied. “He was indeed there at Werkshield, but in the wrong army.”

“What's his name?” Bexx asked.

“Rex.” he replied. “Named after my father.”

Eldora suddenly remembered her own father, who'd been killed by the madaran sniper while he was working on the fields. Damn that stupid man... couldn't he just see he wasn't a trespasser?! She felt as a single teardrop left her eye; she quickly wiped it away before the others saw, and tried to think of something else, with little success, though... but at least, she was able to force herself not to cry.

“Tomorrow the High Priestess is going to announce something,” Arbor said. “I wonder what is it going to be.”

“They'll probably burn another witch.” Alexandros replied with a disgusted tone.

“They seemed to be preparing for something big lately,” Teros said.

“Yes, I'd noticed that, too.” Joras said. “I saw them carry a giant chest through the great hall, into the lower floors.”

“Last night I heard as the High Priestess commanded one of them to take some message to Camp Furor.” Eldora added.

“A message?” Arbor wondered.

“That High Priestess...” Teros said. “She plays the red robed fools like some puppets. She says some commands, and three of them jump right away to do as she obeys. I can't wait to get out of here.”

Alexandros nodded. “I agree.” he said. “But not yet.”

Eldora looked at him curiously. “What are you planning?” she said. “Please, don't leave me here with these people.” she cried out loudly. She saw in the edge of her eyes as some red robes took a short grasp at her.

“We won't.” Alexandros replied. “I promise you this, little lady.”

The others seemed to agree, too, with a slight hint of a nod.


[…]


(Continued in next post due to character limit)

As she finished her breakfast, she rushed to put the plate to the dishwasher's window, and then, as she backed away from the window, she felt as she walked into someone. It was too late to avoid the collision, though. The next moment, she found herself lying on the floor beside one of the red robes.

As she looked up, she saw the mask; it fell off of the person. She turned her head more to see if the person she had knocked off was fine. The first thing she saw was the golden embroidery on the edges of the fabric. She realized it was the High Priestess. Her heart started to beat fast, and started to beat even faster as she first saw her true face...

Her face was pale and had some soft appearance, and she had long brown hair sneaking out from below her hood. Her lips were pink and her eyes were brown. Tiny small dots were scattered across her cheeks below her eyes, and below her chin, her thin pale neck revealed from below the robe. She had not a single scale on her body, her skin was soft... She was not a telian, she realized, and nothing that she'd ever seen before in her life.

“Curse you, stupid brat!” the High Priestess yelled at her. “Can't you watch where you go?”

As she climbed back to her feet, Eldora noticed how everyone was gazing at them. Not them, she realized... in fact, everyone was looking at the strange creature that was hiding behind the High Priestess' mask the entire time.

As the High Priestess stumbled back on her feet, she realized her mask was no longer there to hide her true identity. She gazed around the hall with a shocked look on her face.

“Impostor!” someone from behind Eldora yelled.

“Seize the fake priestess!” someone else, a female voice, yelled. Eldora gazed around, and saw it was one of the red robed people.

At first two, then after some hesitation, three red robed people stepped towards the priestess. The priestess just gazed into Eldora's green eyes the entire time while they chained her.

The woman did not try to fight, she just looked at the little girl with her chocolate brown eyes as they placed a sturdy giant padlock on the chains, pinning four links together. Eldora wondered where did that lock come from – the red robed worshipers always seemed to carry weird things.

As they made sure the bindings were strong enough, they dragged the woman away, and the crowd, that gathered around to see what was going on, followed them while making sounds of awe and terror and hatred that suddenly appeared inside their hearts. Nobody seemed to understand, nobody seemed to know what they had just seen. However, Eldora realized it rather quick what it was... what she was... a human.

Eldora gazed around, and saw Alexandros and his crew; they were just as surprised as herself. Alexandros made a motion with his head to call her closer, so she walked up to them.

“That was unexpected,” Alexandros said. “They are going to execute her.”

“What?” said Eldora shocked. “Why?” She didn't understand why things happened at this wretched place. Most actions just seemed to be done just because it could be done.

“The High Priestess was not a telian for the entire time. She was an impostor, and that is enough of a reason for these people to get her burned.” said Bexx.

“However, little lady. That is not really what should concern us... well... of course the fact that she is an alien, that is something that should concern us. But! …” said Alexandros, then took a short pause. “What she had planned before she was unmasked. That concerns us. We most likely will never know if they kill her.”

“You want to save her?” said Teros. “Save her after she'd commanded to burn so many innocent people?”

“I don't want to save her... more like... question her.” Alexandros replied. “After that, the red robed fools can do whatever they wish with her.”

“Shhh!” Joras warned. “There are ears everywhere here.”

“Girl!” said Bexx. “You're gonna go talk to her.”

“What? How?” Eldora said.

“Later, when things settle down, they're gonna throw her in the dungeons, then leave her there to rot for some time... There are some tunnels leading down there, but you are the only one among us who's small enough.” he replied.

“Why would I do that?” Eldora questioned the old man.

“Because you want to live...” he replied.


[…]


The tunnel was dark and cold, and as Bexx said, it was so narrow that there was barely any room for her slim body. Eldora feared that she might get stuck. However, there was no turning back. Not anymore, as there was absolutely no space to turn around. There was only one direction to go: forward. Some dim light crawled in from the distance before her eyes; there was the exit.

As she reached the end of the tunnel, she heard a noise from behind her, made by some sort of animal. Most likely a rat. She managed to turn her head enough to see what lied behind her. The outlines of the tunnel were barely visible, but the pair of glowing yellowish eyes caught her attention right away. She carefully crawled forward towards the opening at the floor. There was a room underneath, and probably a lamp was left turned on somewhere down there, but not one soul seemed to be around.

As she tried to climb through the tiny hole, the ancient ceiling collapsed below her, and the next moment, she found herself on the floor. It turned out that she was right about the animal; it was indeed a rat, and it fell right next to her. The rat was confused at first, but as it realized what was going on, it dashed away with the speed of light into a tiny hole in the wall.

Eldora gazed at the hole with fascination; admiring the tiny animal, a race that managed to survive everything, despite being attacked by her kind with all sorts of poisons and traps. They survive and multiply rapidly. She wondered if the humans had had their own troubles with them while they lived on the planet.

As she stood up back to her two feet, she noticed a mild pain in her left leg. Most likely injured by the fall, but apart of that, she was all right with only a few scratches. Even the pain was not a big deal, as it seemed to ease after some moments.

She examined the surroundings. The room was empty, and there was a single wooden door, wide open, leading into another room where the light came from. Nobody seemed to be around, otherwise, they would have been alarmed by the massive noise of the collapsing ceiling.

With careful steps, she crept to the door, and took a cautious look into the room behind it. It led to a long corridor with countless cells on either side with rusty old bars. The smell was disgusting; it made her stomach feel dizzy, it almost made her puke. A group of rats slipped through the prison bars from inside one of the empty cells, and casually walked into another cell on the other side of the hallway.

With a dread feeling, Eldora stepped through the door. As she slowly walked past between empty cells, she saw the skeletons of the previous inhabitants. Inside one of them, there was one which had not enough time yet to turn into bones. The smell of rotting flesh struck her nose, and it gave her a terrible nausea. In attempt to avoid the smell, she placed her left hand in front of her nose. She walked forward with careful steps.

Further away into the corridor, far from the decaying corpse, the smell was much more bearable. She arrived to a cell with someone inside; a half-naked man sleeping peacefully. What little clothes he had were torn and ragged. His upper body was full of scars and wounds, and he had a strong smell of booze.

Inside the neighboring cell, there was the person Eldora was looking for. The human woman, sleeping by the wall in a sitting position with her face against her knees. She seemed so peaceful, despite being the murderer who burned so many people on bonfires.

“Psst!” Eldora tried to awaken the woman, but it was not not very effective. She gazed around over the floor to find a tiny pebble or anything. She spotted a tiny screw by the base of one of the rusty iron bars; she picked it up, then threw it at the High Priestess, aiming for her head.

However, instead it landed on her shoulder, and bounced off to the dirty tiles below her, but it was enough to awaken her.

She looked up, not realizing what happened, then as she gazed around, she noticed Eldora; her brown eyes opened wide. Eldora saw on her shocked face that she was speechless, surprised to see her.

“Did they hurt you?” said Eldora with compassion, seeing the wounds across her cheek.

The woman remained silent. Eldora thought she was scared of her. “Don't be afraid. I don't want to hurt you.” she said.

A teardrop seemed to appear at the edge of her eye, then she turned away. Eldora just realized she no longer wore the red robe; it was replaced by old gray rags. They even took away her shoes, revealing her pale bare feet. Eldora found it interesting that a human had five toes, unlike telians who only had four.

“Hey!” said Eldora in a gentle tone. She looked back at her, her face full in tears. “Come closer. I've brought you some food.” she said, then reached into her packet to take out some bread and water.

The woman hesitated for some moments, but finally decided to do as Eldora said. She pulled herself closer, and Eldora noticed that doing so made her feel pain. She tried to hide it, but Eldora could see it clearly. The cursed fools beat her, she thought.


(Continued in next post due to character limit)

She reached for the bread, and Eldora handed it to her. She began consuming it as if it was the best thing in the world, even though, it was just some poorly baked bread from the kitchen. After all, she had not eaten for two days; they left her to rot in the dungeons without water or food. Eldora handed her the flask, and she snatched it away so fast she could barely see. She drank it all within a few moments.

“What's your name?” said Eldora.

She looked at her deep into her eyes with a grateful look on her face. “Alyssa,” she replied, her voice still weak.

“Nice name,” she said. “My name is Eldora.”

“Why did you come? … Eldora.” said Alyssa.

“I just...” Eldora did not know what to say. “I just wanted to say sorry... You know... For getting you in trouble. You probably hate me now.”

Alyssa sighed, then looked down. “I don't hate you,” she said. “I knew it was a risky task.”

“Task?!” said Eldora, surprised. “What task?”

Alyssa started sobbing... “I never wanted this,” she said. “But I had no choice. The others commanded me to take the role of the High Priestess... I had no choice.”

“Why?” said Eldora.

Alyssa did not reply. She cried. Eldora reached out to her, and gave a gentle pat on her shoulder. “It's okay...” said Eldora.

Alyssa looked at her. Her eyes and face turned red. So a human's face changes color when crying... Eldora thought to herself.

Alyssa just wept and wept for some minutes, and Eldora just gazed at her with pity. Before her eyes was the murderer who commanded the death of so many innocent, yet at the time, she felt sorry for her.

“Why did you do what you've done?” Eldora asked.

Alyssa looked at her. “It had to be done... to keep the disguise.” she replied. “I was sent to take the role of the leader of these people.”

“Why did they send you? … And who?” said Eldora.

“The others.” she replied. “It was necessary, because... because... You wouldn't understand; you're too young.”

“Try me,” Eldora insisted.

“The machines that destroyed the old home world of your kind... they were created by my kind... and –”

Eldora's eyes opened wide. Why would they create such monsters? “Why? Why did you create them?” she interrupted.

“To win a war,” Alyssa replied.

“Against whom?” the little girl asked.

“An alien race who threatened our kind. With the help of our creations, we were able to defeat them, but later... they rebelled against us.”

“Then what happened?” said Eldora.

“Then... –,“Alyssa was about to speak, but a loud bang was heard from somewhere, followed by footsteps, getting closer and closer...

“I will come back,” Eldora said, then she ran back to the other room where she entered through the tunnel. The red robed people entered through the door at the other end of the long corridor. She spied them from behind the doorjamb.

The two strangers approached Alyssa's cell, opened the lock, then dragged her out, and escorted her out through the door on which they entered.

As they left, Eldora quickly dragged an empty crate, sitting at the end of the hallway, into the empty room with the broken ceiling, then climbed back into the tunnel through which she came in.


[…]


She crawled as fast as she could. She arrived at the other end far quicker this time. Alexandros and his friends were waiting for her at the opening.

“Did you find her? What did you discover?” Bexx urged.

“I found her, but they took her away!” she replied. “We must do something!”

The five old man took a short glimpse at one another.

“Did the woman reveal anything of use?” said Arbor, the pale old man.

Eldora shook her head.

“It seems we are once again up for action, gentlemen,” said Alexandros. “Come with us, little lady!”

As he said that, they began walking at fast pace towards the accommodation floors.


[…]


They arrived at Bexx's room. Everyone entered, and the door was closed behind them. Bexx reached into his pocket for an old rusty key, and approached an ancient sturdy chest at the end of his bed.

He opened it, revealing a large pile of weaponry. The men armed themselves with guns, knives, bombs, as well as some ammunition. Alexandros even handed Eldora a knife and a small gun.

She looked at the man, and said “I... I can't use it!”

He took her hands gently, and pointed at a tiny switch at the side, above the trigger. “You unlock it with this one. Then you point, and pull the trigger.” Her heart almost stopped beating after realizing, they want her to kill someone. I don't want to, she wanted to say out loud, but she knew the answer already; there was no turning back.


[…]


By the time they arrived to the Great Hall, everyone gathered to see the execution of the fake High Priestess. Everyone was so thrilled about it, that not a single soul had noticed as the five old men stormed in, fully armed with guns and bombs.

There she was, tied above a pile of wood, soaked in oil, ready to be set aflame. The fools in red robe all gathered around her. The new High Priest stood below the altar, facing the crowd, preaching the words of fake wisdom. Nobody paid attention to the surroundings, they were all hypnotized by his words

Then the first shot was fired, piercing through the new High Priest's heart – his dominion ended so soon – then the second and third shot, with unbelievable accuracy, hitting two red robed men from across the hall. All three kills credited to Joras Vox and his sniper rifle.

The volley that Teros' massive minigun unleashed swept across the crowd without mercy, killing women and men alike, both those with and without the red robes. Eldora just watched the massacre, her eyes full in tears, her grip around the handle of the gun she was given, her finger on the trigger. Her heart racing at full speed, her breaths short and quick. She watched as Bexx charged into the crowd with a mighty sword in his hands, slicing through flesh like a butcher, spilling the red blood on red robes. Alexandros and Arbor also had their share, both of them dual wielding pistols, picking off the enemy in sight, one by one, not wasting a single bullet.

The enemy soon realized the situation. The red robed rogues reached for the weapons below the robes, but it was too late for them. The counter fire was desperate and inaccurate, unlike Joras' shots, which were sure and precise. Within a few short moments, the whole crowd was on the ground... All died with smiles painted on their masks.

Alyssa gazed down at them, her eyes full of terror. The woman, who once commanded the same people who then lied in piles below her on the floor in their own blood, was frightened like a little child. “Why?” she said in confusion.

“I expected a thank you... but that should do it for now,” said Teros.

“All right, all right... We gotta be quick, there's no way they didn't hear that on the surface.”Alexandros urged. He and Bexx untied her, and helped her off the altar.

After Alyssa finally stepped off the altar, Arbor approached her, and pinned a pair of handcuffs around her wrists. She looked into the old man's red eyes. “You massacre an entire crowd, but you are afraid of me?” she said in a weak tone in her voice.

“Better be cautious,” he replied.

“What are you going to do with me now?” Alyssa asked.

“We are taking you to a safer place,” Alexandros replied. “Then you tell us everything. Everything about these red fools, and everything about who and what you are!”




To be continued...

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I suppose, it is kind of time to celebrate, as we've arrived to the release of the 20th episode of my little Fan-Fiction.

But since I've forgot to bring beer, we're left to show off with some numbers!

Sooo....

20 episodes,
over 160 A5 pages,
51146 words,
286695 characters...

All that in just 7 months!

Yay!

Wow, you really have been busy! Great job on the last update! You're moving the story along nicely and defiantly keeping me engaged.