The Ones We Forgot: Chapter Twenty-Seven
Cain is forced overcome the Mortalis' mental toll if he is to see his mission through to the end. Inside the Forward Citadel, Valerun also prepares to set his plans into motion.
Once back at the great metal door obstructing his progress, the light flickered above, and this gave Cain a moment of pause. He entered the same code as before that would let him into the Sector, but the doors refused to budge. He tried again and was refused. He punched in the code a third time and was met with denial. He stepped back, confused.
“You’re making a grave mistake, Officer Cain,” said the deep, distorted mechanical voice. It caught Cain off guard, as he didn’t recall there being an A.I. unit deployed inside the Mars base. This was something new.
“Identify yourself!”
“Andrey. I came with my fellow Black Knights.”
“Wait, I remember, the decontamination had exposed you. How did you survive?”
“I became post-physical. I splintered. I exist inside the system. I control this base; I am everywhere and I won’t let you sabotage the will of the Mortalis. All will become one. All will live forever.”
“Not whilst I still think freely. I won’t let you win.”
“We already have.> The voice came through both the panel speakers and prodded at his thoughts. The symbiote is stirring within me!
That shift in the mechanical voice to something that could only be considered demonic made his eyes widen in realisation. To anyone hearing such a voice inside their head, it meant only one thing. His symbiote had finally shown its hand. Before he could process this, he was lifted into the air by an invisible force and launched back the way he came, sliding along the corridor until he came to a stop. Despite the wind being knocked from him, Cain climbed to one knee and tried to calm his erratic breaths. He saw something different now, a messy blur in front of him that was pulling from his past and memories. It found purchase on something dear to him. His daughter whom he would never see again.
“Why did you leave us, father?”
“Don’t you dare!” he screamed, his hands clenched.
“Dare do what?” asked a new female voice. Another of those blasted Knights, I know her better now thanks to our symbiotic link.
“I know what you’re doing, Eva. It won’t work. I know the Mortalis like to get inside people’s minds and find out what makes them tick. You can project as many images as you want. The result will remain the same. The Mortalis, this base, all of it will be reduced to ashes once I’m done.”
Once more full of resolve, Cain advanced back to the entrance to the Industrial sector and knew he would have little time to enact his little plan. He had sensed it the minute he had been flung. The symbiote had woken and its invisible tendrils now snaked their way through his mind, and he felt it hum beneath his skin. It had engaged his proto-core in an attempt to accelerate its own awakening and have him succumb further to aetherial delusion. He would not give it any more chances, not while he controlled his actions. He would die a free man, on his own terms. He resolved to take a leaf out of the Mortalis book and clenched one of his fists, focusing on it and through engaging the Mortis proto-core he was able to make an aether blade that had burst forth from his fist. If Andrey wouldn’t let him pass normally, he would simply have to cut his way through.
A calming sensation coursed through him. A moment of weakness in his will that had he not kept a hold of, he would have been swallowed by the monster developing in his body. He couldn’t feel it, but he sensed it changing how he acted. Occasionally his arm would move as if of its own accord, or he would blink more than he wanted to and against his will.
<I know what you intend…>
The deep voice permeated his thoughts and squashed any attempt for him to block it out.
‘That means you intend to stop me.’
<For the sake of my–our preservation I would hope it wouldn’t need to come to that.>
‘You’re asking me to surrender my people to you. I can’t do that,’ Valerun said closing his eyes, resigned to what needed to be done.
Soon enough the carrier settled on the metal surface inside one of the many Citadel garages. The doors to where he sat slid open and he stood up exiting the seating area. Valerun was soon joined by the others.
“We will have to be quick, we should each have the potential to infect those around us. It’s like it knows why we’re here,” said Javik.
Koleg remained silent, it was hard to tell if he was even conscious of what they were about to do, or if he experienced anything close to the vice-like grip being exerted upon his thoughts like the others, then his internal tug of war might have already been lost. I could be looking at the husk of the man I once knew.
“We’ll work our way to the command centre, by the time we’re done. This Citadel will belong to the True Mortalis.”
Valerun and Koleg fell in behind Javik, who led the way into one of the citadel’s many meandering corridors. The first of their victims soon came into view, a young-looking silver Kaskari woman, eager to make an impression, Javik approached them, and the slithering tendril containing the means to create a Mortis symbiote emerged from behind his shoulder and wrapped around his arm. The Kaskari female had barely any time to register a reaction as the tendril was launched at her face. The end of the tendril was a mouth sealed by black triangular teeth. They opened and latched onto the Kaskari woman’s mouth, digging in and making it impossible for her to even scream. The mortis would do the rest in due time. And as the woman dropped to her knees, her eyes widened. Valerun would remember that look for as long as he still had control. He watched her hands change, over them appeared twin psionic blades that formed a triangular shape she crossed them and sliced, separating herself from the tendril’s grip. The part attached to her fell away as if a worm and dissolved into the floor, she fell back meanwhile and now on her back took a minute before getting back up to one knee.
“What is this!”
“Your future,” Javik said stepping past her.
Valerun paused at her side as she released her psionic weapon and just stared forward. The life in her eyes may well have also been released too.
“Someone has to stop this… it can’t happen again.”
He waited till the other two were farther enough down the corridor to mutter a response. “It won’t I promise.”
She stared at him. “Don’t make a promise you know you can’t keep. Why didn’t you stop him?”
“I’m sorry for what you will become. I’m ending this before it can spread beyond this world.”
She reached for her throat. “What do you need me to do?”
“The citadel has numerous airlocks, disable them.”
“Sucking them out won’t do much.”
“These monsters still need to breathe, without oxygen, they’ll suffocate and die.”
“So will we.”
“That is the price of containment.”
“Valerun!” Javik shouted realising he had fallen behind. ‘Why are you stalling?’
‘I was just admiring your work, Javik.’
‘There’s a time and a place. Right now we have a citadel to takeover.’
Valerun nodded to the girl and watched her get back onto unsteady feet before continuing forward. He waited til Javik had fully retreated from his mind before thinking to himself. It doesn’t look like he’s aware of what I just said. Good, the longer he doesn’t suspect me, the better.
The process gradually repeated itself, a few tried resisting using their weapons but Javik, as a fellow soldier managed to dodge the incoming aether plasma blasts by blinking. He killed some of those that got in the way and infected others. Naturally, it wasn’t long before the base was under an alert status. The resistance was beginning to bog them down even while newly infected Mortans fought alongside them.
“I will deal with those in the engineering section,” Valerun said.
Javik looked at him sceptically, “fine,” he growled. “But Oleg will go with you.”
“But won’t that make it harder for you to reach the command centre?”
Javik looked back the way they came, Mortans followed in their wake. Kaskari that had had their minds subsumed entirely by the symbiote. They were nothing more now than drones in need of direction. “I have my army. Take some with you, and spread the will of Truth.”