The Ones We Forgot: Chapter Twenty-Nine
As the Black Knight head for the transports, Valerun begins his plan to destroy the Forward Citadel and put an end to the Mortalis threat now plaguing Mars.
Once inside the observation corridor, they soon learned it would not be the easiest way forward. Blood soaked the metallic walls and was splattered all over the consoles. This sight already told them some of what had occurred here, as did the rancid smell of decay. One body near the monitor station rose as if it had been waiting for someone. Melina, still at the front, formed a brown aether lance. It curled its way around her arm and formed a sword-like point. The monster, now subsumed by its symbiote, glared at her as if to question how she could act outside the will of their universal master, Truth.
<You can’t hide from his gaze forever.>
<We’ve done it for this long, we’re not stopping now,> answered Melina’s symbiote.
“This should be a piece of cake. How much of that mind is even left? You can barely stand. Did you enjoy the frenzy?”
“Do not mock me!”
The Mortan lunged for her, forming symbiote claws instead of Aether ones. Melina sidestepped the attacker and turned on them, slicing down their back. This left a searing, gaping wound that stunned the Mortan. Francis, not wanting to waste any more time, placed his M1 Garand on the woman’s forehead and pulled the trigger. While he set to work on removing her symbiote, the others were more distracted by the contamination chamber’s bulkhead door opening, allowing Ross to enter the narrow corridor. He walked slowly and with a slouch until he stopped at the same place the Black Knights had when they were first scanned. The alarm siren deafened each of them and he glanced into the observation chamber. His widened, blackened eyes focused fully on Anya.
“Come with me or stay and die like the rest. The choice is yours, Anya,” his voice had been mutated into something more gravelly that both she heard and felt in her mind.
“I’m sorry, Ross. I didn’t want it to end this way,” Anya said while raising the pistol.
Francis jumped to his feet. “Anya - don’t pull-”
Mercifully, the pistol bullet didn’t breach the observation window, instead, it became lodged inside it. The fracture spread rapidly from the entry point; the sound of the glass cracking matched Ross’s fragmenting smile. From behind him, a shadowy tentacle lashed at the screen. It shattered it and, from his body, escaped an eruption of aetherial shadow that plunged the observation area into a foggy darkness.
The engineering portion of the Forward Citadel sat on the middle level of the mobile castle. Aware of the coming threat, those inside had sealed the bulkhead doors. This forced Valerun and Oleg to work in tandem to carve their way through the thick metal using their aether blades. Once inside, Oleg wasted no time, nor did the horde following in their wake. They swarmed the gap, and Valerun dodged effectively, phasing in and out to avoid the incoming barrage of plasma fire. He soon reached where he needed to be and met the petrified look of a guard who now pointed his Aethr rifle at him. He had only minutes, if that, to try to reason with them.
“I promise you I’m trying to prevent what comes next.”
“Why should I trust you?” hissed the guard.
“If you doubted me, you would have pulled the trigger by now. We don’t have much time,” said Valerun while engineering fell into the clutches of a growing Mortalis threat.
“What do you need to do?”
“Simple, I just need to blow up this ship.”
“That’s not simple,” said the guard as he frantically fired at an oncoming Mortan. Its body exploded, spewing body parts and black biomass in all directions. His rifle smoked as he side-eyed Valerun. “I’ll watch your back. You’ll have to patch into the command centre, and hope that they believe you.”
Valerun set to work accessing the nearby console and requested a connection to the command centre above them. He kept his body low to avoid any stray shots. True to his word, the guard remained close, scanning the chaos and deterring any Mortan from getting close. It won’t work forever. At some point, Oleg will notice what I’m trying to do… then what?
The screen in front of him blinked on, revealing Commander Varon in the Command Centre. He looked suitably furious at how things had played out so far.
“Is that really you, Valerun?”
“Yes, but I’m—we’re all running out of time.”
“I gathered. Your friend Javik tried to storm this section of the castle, but we put him down. I presume the Mars base is compromised.”
“It is.”
The man scowled. “And now, so are we. I have a feeling I know what you’re going to ask.”
“It’s actually two things.”
“Spit it out.”
“The first is a strike against the Mars base; we all know the stories. Once it becomes convergent, nothing can stop it. A preemptive strike would stop it in its tracks.”
“And the second thing.”
Valerun found himself shaking and looked at the brown biomass surfacing over the back of his hands. His mouth began to water, and his vision blurred. He hardened his mind and focused fully on the commander. “They can’t be allowed to leave, Commander. You know the protocol.”
“The Anathema Protocol–to be enacted when the Mortalis become incapable of being contained by standard measures. You’re proposing we self-destruct the forward citadel, killing everyone.”
“Only you have that key, Commander. Give me access to the weapons system, and I’ll handle the strike.”
He could see the commander wrestle with the idea. Sure they had stopped Javik, but since their arrival, more and more had been infected. It was not a matter of if they overran the castle, but when. The Commander relented. “Giving you access to the missile battery. I’ll initiate the self-destruct sequence. The Dauntless is too far gone to come back for us.”
Valerun simply nodded and focused his efforts on beginning a launch of the castle’s payload. Even if the Mars Base’s defences intercepted some, just as many would make contact and cause widespread depressurization. He had completed the first set of instructions when Oleg made a beeline for him, slicing through any that came his way and firing at anyone who fired back. His body, a mixture of Kaskari and Mortan, looked burnt to a crisp. Yet he still held nothing back. Valerun’s guard tried to stop him but was blocked and then decapitated by the sweeping fizzle of the aether blade. Oleg’s form transitioned into the monstrous shape of the Mortan, completely subsuming within its protective shell.
“Valerun, you’ll pay for this!”
Valerun didn’t give him a response and instead fired back some shots of his own until the monster struck the rifle and forced him to drop it. After igniting his own aether blade the two swords met and the castle AI made the announcement. “Self-destruct sequence initiated. All personnel are advised to evacuate. Destruction will occur in three minutes.”
Valerun could see Oleg’s eyes widen in abject horror. “I don’t need to win!” he growled; the growing Mortan within him finally found its voice. “I just need you to lose!”