Re: The Phenomenal Fracas! (GBS2G6): [Round Three: HMS Thunderhead]
06-19-2011, 01:01 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Anomaly.
Takara Shimura slowly dragged herself from the large, luxurious bed which encompassed much of her suite's bedroom. She was in no hurry, of course - even after three weeks, she was still overwhelmed by the first-class accomodations that her employer had managed to secure for most of Vetix Enterprises's top staff. Of course, since Vetix was one of the prime sponsors of the HMS Thunderhead, it wasn't all that surprising. Letting a few important employees into first-class was the least the Imperial Shipyard could do for the company that funded nearly half of the entire project.
Takara strolled to the large, reinforced window that made up an entire wall of the suite's main living area. According to the captain, it'd only be about an hour before they made it home. It was almost relieving, yet simultaneously disappointing. She supposed it was for the best that they were nearly back to Varral, considering the rumors of strange activity on lower decks. Some poor lower-class passenger had even died just an hour before, although security wasn't telling how. A little worrying, in honesty.
Takara stepped back from the window. This wasn't the place to be for the ship's grand arrival on Varral. The VIP observation deck would make for much better viewing. Besides, it was right below this deck anyway - not that far to go. Takara nonchalantly stepped out into the promenade, a regal pathway which soon led her to the Deck 50 plaza. The equally ornate plaza held the entrances to the ten main lifts, and gave magnificent views of the interior of the entire HMS Thunderhead. Above the extravagant fountain in the center of the plaza was an equally magnificent golden chandelier, of design so perfect as to render many passengers awestruck.
Takara was much more awestruck, though, when the chandelier collapsed and crushed the fountain below it.
"Running won't do you any good, lubbers! You can't escape Ripper Blackmask!" yelled a longcoat-clad figure which emerged from the chandelier, waving a standard plasma pistol at the scrambling passengers. Several shots were fired; several passengers dropped to the ground in an instant. Takara couldn't tell if they were simply ducking for cover or if they had been shot. She didn't want to stay to find out. She sprinted down the promenade in panic, diving into her suite as soon as the door was opened. She firmly sealed the door behind her and dropped to the ground, out of breath.
"Mr. Gallagher, sir!"
Gallagher slowly turned to face the over-anxious security guard who had barged into his office unannounced. "What is it, Lambert?"
"There's been an attack on deck 50, sir! Casualty reports are coming in, but the attacker hasn't been neutralized yet!"
Dammit, I told them to wait! This has better just be another of those intruders. Gallagher pounded his fist against the desk angrily. "Well, don't just stand there! Get security up there, now!"
"Y-yes, sir!" The guard stumbled back through the door as Gallagher returned to his final plans. One minute. He opened communications with all heist members.
"This is Matthew Gallagher. The operation will begin in T-minus 55 seconds. Everyone had better be in position. Any of you screw up, you no longer get a cut and you're likely a dead man. Don't mess this up. When I give the signal, perform your tasks immediately. I'll head to the bridge and take out Captain Reed and his precious little crew. Ten seconds. Don't mess this up. Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Begin!"
Captain Tiberius Reed sat back in his captain's chair, unmoved from his position hours before. Only an hour left until the Thunderhead's arrival. Only an hour until he finally met the Empress of the Third Empire personally after all these years. Gallagher hadn't even visited him in nearly an hour - presumably, the security faults had been taken care of. Reed knew, of course, that anything could still happen in the final hour of the journey, and he liked to think he was fully prepared for anything short of total destruction of the Thunderhead. As was almost dramatically appropriate, the entire ship was shaken by an unseen force. The lights flickered out entirely, save for a few which ran on emergency power.
"What the hell was that?"
"Sir!" Lieutenant Edon Kadare looked over the ship's status display in a panic. "The main reactor core's gone down! All main engines are offline, and we've lost all but four auxillary engines! Those were enough to get us back on course, but they'll barely be sufficient to make a proper landing!"
"They'll have to do, Kadare. Do you have any idea what caused this?"
"Not yet, sir. We'll have to wait for a report from Galla-"
A bright flash of light filled the room for a moment, accompanied only by the yells of Lieutenant Kadare. Standing at the entrance to the bridge was one Matthew Gallagher, a plasma pulse rifle in his hands.
"Your engines aren't just offline, Captain. They're completely beyond repair. So is the reactor core. And all the passengers you've been entrusted with? Who've put their safety in your hands? They may very well die. And no one's going to protect them, Captain. Just like no one could protect your Operations officer here. What happened to him, anyway?"
"What do you mean, what happened to him? You shot him!" Captain Reed abandoned his captain's chair and turned to face Gallagher directly, an expression of rage on his face.
"I did no such thing, Captain. I just got here. Haven't even fired a shot! Not yet, anyway."
"He's right. I did." Reed, Gallagher, and the rest of the bridge crew glanced to the bridge's second entrance in surprise. There, completely unnoticed, stood a man in a ragged-looking cloak and hat, pointing a smoking crossbow at the newly-deceased Operations officer.
"One of the intruders? Huh. Thought I had security take care of you an hour ago. Oh, well. Guess I can just do it now." Gallagher whipped his pulse rifle toward the intruder and immediately fired.
Tamerlane effortlessly dodged the bolt of plasma, then lowered his crossbow at Gallagher. "I could kill you much more easily. I'm just here to use your communicators. Show me those, and I won't kill anyone else."
After thinking for a moment, Tiberius Reed nodded at Halyna Pavlyuchenko, the Thunderhead's communications officer. She motioned to Tamerlane, then pressed a sequence of buttons and stood back.
"Communications are open. What did you want to contact?" Pavlyuchenko attempted to stay professional, but was obviously nervous around the still-armed murderer.
"Nowhere specific. Everywhere you can send a message to."
The communications officer pushed a few more buttons, then stepped away for the intruder to send his message.
The cheers of the crowd grew to a violent roar as Jerome continued on. "The oppression ends here and now! If those of us here today cannot win this battle, then let us be martyrs! The stories will spread. The oppressed everywhere will hear the plight of the HMS Thunderhead! The tyrannical regime will fall! Now onward, bretheren! Onward to the lower decks! Let no one stand in your way!"
The roar of the crowd instantly became a deafening battlecry as the people scattered. Dingy couches and cheap synthetic plants were overturned. Security officers were trampled, their weapons stolen by the relentless crowd. Rioters flooded into the lifts, up and down the various stairwells, overtaking any who stood in their way. More and more third-class passengers were rallied to their cause; the horde grew bigger by the second. Soon, they would spill out into the upper decks, beating back any who stood in their way. Soon, the Thunderhead would descend into chaos.
The Resonife was a very recent Vetix Enterprises development, a blade capable of vibrating thousands of times a second. Resonife, of course, wasn't a perfect descriptor - just a clever name for marketing. The line extended to blades of all sizes - pocket knives, steak knives, swords... even a special oversized sword known only as the "Hummer". Takara had helped with the development of that line; the higher-frequency models could cut through steel like a regular knife through butter. If the Red Man or his friends had one of those... no one was safe.
From behind the wall, Takara heard yelling for a moment, followed by silence. After a few moments, two voices could be heard through the wall.
"Head of Vetix Enterprises, huh?"
"Yep. Shame, really. They're gonna have to get a new CEO now! Hah!"
"Guy would've keeled over from age soon enough anyway. This is the biggest suite on the entire ship; make sure you don't miss a thing!"
"And the body?"
"Eh, I don't care. Leave it here, toss it into the fireplace... Doesn't matter."
Takara froze. They... They had killed her boss. Rupert McFarland, just about the only CEO Takara had ever liked, was dead. And why? For his money? They had killed a defenseless old man just because he happened to be rich! Takara huddled herself more tightly in a corner. The voices returned.
"I've got the cash. We'll come back for the big stuff when we're ready. Let's head for the next one. Heard it's another Vetix employee, you know what that means! Cold, hard cash!"
The two men laughed gruffly as Takara stayed perfectly silent, to afraid to even move at this point. In a few moments, she heard a series of beeps from her door; the pirates were locked out. Takara breathed a small sigh of relief, cut short by the high-pitched wail of a Resonife slicing through the doorframe.
A thick haze filled the room. The serpent could see nothing anywhere; just the purple-gray blur that reality had become. He could scarcely feel his body - an attempt to move an arm resulting in nothing, an attempt to speak resulted only in mumbling.
"Syvex, are you awake?"
A shadow moved through the haze. No, no, it wasn't moving. It was right over him. Watching him. Syvex could still do little more than twitch a finger or two. Despite his tongue's protests, he tried to speak.
"Y... yes... Awake..."
"Ah, good, you can hear me. You'll be happy to know that the operation went off without a problem. How do you feel?"
The shadow slowly became clearer - it was definitely a human. Syvex felt light-headed - he could barely even remember where he was.
"Oper... ation?"
"Ah, of course. Still under the effects of the anesthetic. Well, shouldn't be much longer before you're ready to go. I'd really like to know what this stuff actually does..."
Very slowly, the world drew into focus. Abstracted shadows gained form. The clarity steadily grew from a tiny area around Syvex, encompassing more and more of the operating room. Yes, that was it - the operation! The strange liquid in the bottle should now have been a part of him - he didn't feel much different, just weak from the operation. It wasn't anything new to him - this had been standard fare under Interstice's studies, the few times they even bothered to use anesthetic.
"It... It went fine? Doesn't seem much different..."
"We'll see about that once you've recovered. Take it easy - we're not in any hurry."
"I... I kind of am... in a hurry. Someone... on the other ship."
Syvex could vaguely perceive a frown on the doctor's face. It was fairly evident that he had been looking forward to seeing the results of the operation in full. Steadily regaining motor control, Syvex slumped off of the operating table, crashing to the ground. He righted himself against the nearby wall, hauling himself back to his normal height. His vision was definitely clearing, but something felt wrong. Throughout his body, he felt an odd malaise, but nothing he could easily describe. He could only compare it to being charged with a dark energy as he had been in Afterparty, but on a smaller scale.
"Beginning to... feel better. Can I leave now?"
The doctor sighed, his frown persisting. "Fine, fine. I assume you want to go back to the... space-zeppelin... immediately?"
"That's... That's what I'm planning."
"I'll get an escort for you. Can't just leave you to wander the ship, after all. Security measures."
The doctor stepped outside and motioned down the hall, further than Syvex could see in his temporary weakness. A duo of armed guards, two of the same guards who had escorted him here, appeared at the doorway. The three talked for a moment, then one motioned for Syvex to follow. After following them down a number of indentical angular corridors, another idea struck the serpent.
"Wait... wait. Does this ship have... records?"
The guards stopped, and one of them turned to speak. "Well, of course. You'd probably be allowed to view some of them, if that's what you want. Would you like us to escort you there?"
"If it's quick... then yes."
The guard gave an affirmative, and the two began leading Syvex in another direction. After a short while, they stopped at one of the many identical sliding doors, which opened to reveal a small room with a few computer consoles in it. A short, balding man sat behind a cramped desk to the side, watching the new arrival with wide eyes.
"We'll be waiting outside. Ask him whatever you want." The guards retreated into the hallway as the sliding doors shut behind them. Syvex took a moment to take in his surroundings. The room itself was unimpressive, but outside, between the walls, there was something much greater. A complicated network of wiring snaked and spiraled its way into and out of a massive, glowing box deep within the back wall. Syvex stood longer, gazing at the oddly transfixing sight, jostled back into reality only by a hushed, almost timid voice from behind the counter.
"Hello. Was there something you wanted to look up?"
"Um... yes, I was wondering if you had any... information on a company called 'Interstice'."
"One moment, I'll look it up."
Syvex's attention shot right back to the glowing conduit. It wasn't just the lattice of cables or even the glowing focus itself that so captivated him. He could see further, deeper. Within the mechanism itself, he could see thousands of different layers, energy pulses wildly surging through, unbound, yet orderly, a perfectly arranged excused me almost out of reality itself, perhaps the operation had let him hello more than he could ever have
"Hello?"
"Huh?"
"I said, I've found a few records on an 'Interstice'. Laboratory on an alternate Earth, was in the process of developing faster-than-light space travel when GRIMACE contacted them in that Earth's 2097. A few files were exchanged. Are there any specifics you wanted to know?"
"Look up the... 'Shadow Serpent' project, I think it was... Do you have any information on that?"
The conduit beckoned to him still. He could see every bit of it; all of the little systems and subsystems were stretched out before him. This conduit was suddenly the only thing that mattered now, this was the entire universe and nothing could ever shake him away from it no matter what happened! It was so close, he could practically touch it. He slowly drifted toward the wall, the horrible obstructing wall, and reached out toward the object of his transfixion.
The conduit exploded.
Syvex awoke once more to find a large Russian man standing over him. He immediately noticed a large, scorched hole in the wall, surrounded by debris and twisted metal. The computer consoles had been blown to pieces, though the "librarian" had apparently been safe behind his desk. Syvex tried to piece together the events of the past few minutes, but fell flat. What had he been doing? He had gone looking for information about Interstice or something, then... nothing.
"...Do you have any idea what just happened? How'd the wall explode?"
The Russian man glared at him quizzically, raising an eyebrow. "You blew up a critical power conduit, that's what. You don't remember doing that?"
Syvex shook his head. "Don't remember anything after coming in here. It... it might be because of that operation, I don't know. I guess I'll just go back to the other ship. Sorry about the mess."
"You're going to have a hard time getting over there. That conduit you destroyed also burned out all teleportation systems. I don't know what you did, but it wasn't good, to say the least. Oh, by the way. Your name's 'Syvex', right?"
"...Yeah, why?"
"We just got a transmission from the other ship from someone calling himself 'Tamerlane'. Said he was holding some girl hostage on the bridge. 'Eureka', was it? An odd name."
"Eureka... I have to get over there now."
"There's no way over there until we repair the damage, and we can't repair it while we're here. We're heading back to our home dimension for repairs soon, then returning for the team we sent over there. 31 was on that team, if for some reason you need him."
"How long will the repairs take?" Syvex was growing more agitated by the second.
"An hour or two, at least. You managed to destroy several key systems."
"I don't have 'an hour or two'! You know what, how do I get out of this ship? I'll go through space."
"...What are you talking about?"
"Space. You know, the big void out there? Ring a bell?"
"You're not seriously considering throwing yourself through space."
"I am. It's dark in space, I can make portals, and I can hold my breath for ten minutes. I don't see the problem. Where's the exit?"
"There's no convincing you otherwise, is there? The guards'll escort you to the airlock. Do yourself a favor and do this right, okay? You don't get a second chance."
"I know. Good luck with the repairs, or whatever."
Syvex followed two more guards through yet another series of bland corridors and lifts, eventually reaching a large, circular door which led into a small chamber. On the opposite wall of this chamber was a second, heavier door, which led directly into space. Assuring the guards he was ready, Syvex entered the airlock. As the door sealed behind him, he took hold of the edges of the wall behind the exterior door, ready to fling himself to the Thunderhead. He gave the signal to the guard outside, and moments later, the airlock opened with a defeaning rush of air. Syvex, not well-versed in the physics of a vacuum, was caught off-guard as he was forcefully blasted into space, scarcely having time to take a hurried gasp of air.
Then, silence. An eerie, abnormal silence, unlike anything the serpent had experienced in his short life. Not even the impossible geometries and black voids of the Malevolence-controlled manor house had prepared him for the vast nothingness of space. The utter lack of heat was almost completely unbearable, only survivable because of the quick regeneration the void gave him.
But none of this mattered now. What mattered was that Syvex's destination was very quickly heading in the other direction, disappearing into the distance. The serpent hastily created a portal leading as far away as possible, then another, then another. Slowly, the Thunderhead came back into view, growing closer with every series of portals. Syvex eventually caught up with the metal behemoth, and prepared to grab a hold of the edge of one of its many windows. Syvex successfully slammed into the side, but was immediately sent tumbling in the opposite direction. He continued frantically portalling himself closer, but this time stayed as close as possible to the zeppelin without colliding.
Syvex felt a tightness welling up in his lungs. He couldn't hold his breath much longer. Desperately, he searched the interior of the zeppelin for a dark room, any place he could get himself into. It wasn't hard to find darkness, considering the ship's condition at the time. About to suffocate, Syvex hastily opened a portal in the darkness within, launching himself painfully across the darkness-entrenched bedroom and crashing into a wall.
It was immediately apparent that something wasn't right. On the floor near the wall was a large bloodstain, trailing toward the door before stopping entirely. The room's furniture was upended; broken bits of glass and porcelain littered the floor of the large suite. There had obviously been a struggle, but those involved had long since vanished. Or... not long since. On closer inspection, the blood was still fresh, not dried as it had originally appeared. Had Tamerlane done this? It was more likely than any of the others.
Syvex made his way through the door, entering a large, empty plaza. The shattered remains of a once-ornate chandelier lay spread across the floor. There was little blood in the plaza, unlike the pools in the bedroom. Something significant had happened while Syvex was away, that much was sure. He tried a few of the lifts, but they were unresponsive - either offline entirely or busy with passengers higher up. Not stopping for a moment, Syvex began steadily ascending through each deck in sequence, taking care to remain in dark, out of the way areas. He mostly stayed to air vents and maintenance catwalks, both of which were completely blackened and empty. As he neared Deck Zero, a voice very familiar to the serpent came over the intercom, likely broadcast throughout the entire ship.
"Attention, Syvex. This is your final warning. I have Eureka, and I will not hesitate to kill her if you fail to show up. We're on the bridge, if you've still managed to avoid hearing these messages. If you want to see her alive, you have ten minutes to show up on the bridge." The sounds of a couple of men fighting were clearly audible in the background. "Actually, this place is already in use. Come to the kitchens immediately. Deck two. You have exactly ten minutes. I'll be waiting. By the way, officer, thanks for your services."
A scream reverberated through the ship before the communications line cut out. Tamerlane was going to kill Eureka if Syvex didn't hurry. He had no choice now. There was no fooling around this time. Tamerlane was going to die this round.
Takara Shimura slowly dragged herself from the large, luxurious bed which encompassed much of her suite's bedroom. She was in no hurry, of course - even after three weeks, she was still overwhelmed by the first-class accomodations that her employer had managed to secure for most of Vetix Enterprises's top staff. Of course, since Vetix was one of the prime sponsors of the HMS Thunderhead, it wasn't all that surprising. Letting a few important employees into first-class was the least the Imperial Shipyard could do for the company that funded nearly half of the entire project.
Takara strolled to the large, reinforced window that made up an entire wall of the suite's main living area. According to the captain, it'd only be about an hour before they made it home. It was almost relieving, yet simultaneously disappointing. She supposed it was for the best that they were nearly back to Varral, considering the rumors of strange activity on lower decks. Some poor lower-class passenger had even died just an hour before, although security wasn't telling how. A little worrying, in honesty.
Takara stepped back from the window. This wasn't the place to be for the ship's grand arrival on Varral. The VIP observation deck would make for much better viewing. Besides, it was right below this deck anyway - not that far to go. Takara nonchalantly stepped out into the promenade, a regal pathway which soon led her to the Deck 50 plaza. The equally ornate plaza held the entrances to the ten main lifts, and gave magnificent views of the interior of the entire HMS Thunderhead. Above the extravagant fountain in the center of the plaza was an equally magnificent golden chandelier, of design so perfect as to render many passengers awestruck.
Takara was much more awestruck, though, when the chandelier collapsed and crushed the fountain below it.
"Running won't do you any good, lubbers! You can't escape Ripper Blackmask!" yelled a longcoat-clad figure which emerged from the chandelier, waving a standard plasma pistol at the scrambling passengers. Several shots were fired; several passengers dropped to the ground in an instant. Takara couldn't tell if they were simply ducking for cover or if they had been shot. She didn't want to stay to find out. She sprinted down the promenade in panic, diving into her suite as soon as the door was opened. She firmly sealed the door behind her and dropped to the ground, out of breath.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Security Chief Matthew Gallagher sat in his office, making final preparations for the heist. Finally, after years of planning, he'd take down that damned captain and get away with the wealth of thousands. A 50% cut of all the ship's treasures... not a bad deal for orchestrating the perfect heist. Three minutes remained until zero hour. Nothing would stop him now."Mr. Gallagher, sir!"
Gallagher slowly turned to face the over-anxious security guard who had barged into his office unannounced. "What is it, Lambert?"
"There's been an attack on deck 50, sir! Casualty reports are coming in, but the attacker hasn't been neutralized yet!"
Dammit, I told them to wait! This has better just be another of those intruders. Gallagher pounded his fist against the desk angrily. "Well, don't just stand there! Get security up there, now!"
"Y-yes, sir!" The guard stumbled back through the door as Gallagher returned to his final plans. One minute. He opened communications with all heist members.
"This is Matthew Gallagher. The operation will begin in T-minus 55 seconds. Everyone had better be in position. Any of you screw up, you no longer get a cut and you're likely a dead man. Don't mess this up. When I give the signal, perform your tasks immediately. I'll head to the bridge and take out Captain Reed and his precious little crew. Ten seconds. Don't mess this up. Five... Four... Three... Two... One... Begin!"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Captain Tiberius Reed sat back in his captain's chair, unmoved from his position hours before. Only an hour left until the Thunderhead's arrival. Only an hour until he finally met the Empress of the Third Empire personally after all these years. Gallagher hadn't even visited him in nearly an hour - presumably, the security faults had been taken care of. Reed knew, of course, that anything could still happen in the final hour of the journey, and he liked to think he was fully prepared for anything short of total destruction of the Thunderhead. As was almost dramatically appropriate, the entire ship was shaken by an unseen force. The lights flickered out entirely, save for a few which ran on emergency power.
"What the hell was that?"
"Sir!" Lieutenant Edon Kadare looked over the ship's status display in a panic. "The main reactor core's gone down! All main engines are offline, and we've lost all but four auxillary engines! Those were enough to get us back on course, but they'll barely be sufficient to make a proper landing!"
"They'll have to do, Kadare. Do you have any idea what caused this?"
"Not yet, sir. We'll have to wait for a report from Galla-"
A bright flash of light filled the room for a moment, accompanied only by the yells of Lieutenant Kadare. Standing at the entrance to the bridge was one Matthew Gallagher, a plasma pulse rifle in his hands.
"Your engines aren't just offline, Captain. They're completely beyond repair. So is the reactor core. And all the passengers you've been entrusted with? Who've put their safety in your hands? They may very well die. And no one's going to protect them, Captain. Just like no one could protect your Operations officer here. What happened to him, anyway?"
"What do you mean, what happened to him? You shot him!" Captain Reed abandoned his captain's chair and turned to face Gallagher directly, an expression of rage on his face.
"I did no such thing, Captain. I just got here. Haven't even fired a shot! Not yet, anyway."
"He's right. I did." Reed, Gallagher, and the rest of the bridge crew glanced to the bridge's second entrance in surprise. There, completely unnoticed, stood a man in a ragged-looking cloak and hat, pointing a smoking crossbow at the newly-deceased Operations officer.
"One of the intruders? Huh. Thought I had security take care of you an hour ago. Oh, well. Guess I can just do it now." Gallagher whipped his pulse rifle toward the intruder and immediately fired.
Tamerlane effortlessly dodged the bolt of plasma, then lowered his crossbow at Gallagher. "I could kill you much more easily. I'm just here to use your communicators. Show me those, and I won't kill anyone else."
After thinking for a moment, Tiberius Reed nodded at Halyna Pavlyuchenko, the Thunderhead's communications officer. She motioned to Tamerlane, then pressed a sequence of buttons and stood back.
"Communications are open. What did you want to contact?" Pavlyuchenko attempted to stay professional, but was obviously nervous around the still-armed murderer.
"Nowhere specific. Everywhere you can send a message to."
The communications officer pushed a few more buttons, then stepped away for the intruder to send his message.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"What has Tiberius Reed done for us? What have those high-class ingrates down below done for us? We've been living in these pits while they sip their martinis and watch the stars from their observation deck! What if life support runs low after all these power failures? They'll let us die before any of their 'important' passengers!" The growing crowd shouted in approval at the increasingly impassioned Jerome Gerrickson, taking no heed of the cloaked figure hiding in the shadows. "They get the best and quickest medical care! They get the best food while we get the dregs! We cannot stand for this any longer! The time has come, at long last, to take action!"The cheers of the crowd grew to a violent roar as Jerome continued on. "The oppression ends here and now! If those of us here today cannot win this battle, then let us be martyrs! The stories will spread. The oppressed everywhere will hear the plight of the HMS Thunderhead! The tyrannical regime will fall! Now onward, bretheren! Onward to the lower decks! Let no one stand in your way!"
The roar of the crowd instantly became a deafening battlecry as the people scattered. Dingy couches and cheap synthetic plants were overturned. Security officers were trampled, their weapons stolen by the relentless crowd. Rioters flooded into the lifts, up and down the various stairwells, overtaking any who stood in their way. More and more third-class passengers were rallied to their cause; the horde grew bigger by the second. Soon, they would spill out into the upper decks, beating back any who stood in their way. Soon, the Thunderhead would descend into chaos.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Takara Shimura sat huddled in a corner of her magnificent first-class suite, panting heavily. She could still hear the gritty voice of the man in the red coat, and over all the screams of the panicked crowd. But after several minutes, the distinct brzap of a plasma pistol increased significantly in frequency. Had security finally arrived? The crowd didn't seem to be panicking any less. In fact, it almost seemed to Takara that they were in even more of a frenzy than before. Maybe the man in red had brought friends. Well, at least those plasma pistols weren't going to be enough to get them into this suite. Unless... Unless they had gotten a hold of a Resonife.The Resonife was a very recent Vetix Enterprises development, a blade capable of vibrating thousands of times a second. Resonife, of course, wasn't a perfect descriptor - just a clever name for marketing. The line extended to blades of all sizes - pocket knives, steak knives, swords... even a special oversized sword known only as the "Hummer". Takara had helped with the development of that line; the higher-frequency models could cut through steel like a regular knife through butter. If the Red Man or his friends had one of those... no one was safe.
From behind the wall, Takara heard yelling for a moment, followed by silence. After a few moments, two voices could be heard through the wall.
"Head of Vetix Enterprises, huh?"
"Yep. Shame, really. They're gonna have to get a new CEO now! Hah!"
"Guy would've keeled over from age soon enough anyway. This is the biggest suite on the entire ship; make sure you don't miss a thing!"
"And the body?"
"Eh, I don't care. Leave it here, toss it into the fireplace... Doesn't matter."
Takara froze. They... They had killed her boss. Rupert McFarland, just about the only CEO Takara had ever liked, was dead. And why? For his money? They had killed a defenseless old man just because he happened to be rich! Takara huddled herself more tightly in a corner. The voices returned.
"I've got the cash. We'll come back for the big stuff when we're ready. Let's head for the next one. Heard it's another Vetix employee, you know what that means! Cold, hard cash!"
The two men laughed gruffly as Takara stayed perfectly silent, to afraid to even move at this point. In a few moments, she heard a series of beeps from her door; the pirates were locked out. Takara breathed a small sigh of relief, cut short by the high-pitched wail of a Resonife slicing through the doorframe.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Syvex."A thick haze filled the room. The serpent could see nothing anywhere; just the purple-gray blur that reality had become. He could scarcely feel his body - an attempt to move an arm resulting in nothing, an attempt to speak resulted only in mumbling.
"Syvex, are you awake?"
A shadow moved through the haze. No, no, it wasn't moving. It was right over him. Watching him. Syvex could still do little more than twitch a finger or two. Despite his tongue's protests, he tried to speak.
"Y... yes... Awake..."
"Ah, good, you can hear me. You'll be happy to know that the operation went off without a problem. How do you feel?"
The shadow slowly became clearer - it was definitely a human. Syvex felt light-headed - he could barely even remember where he was.
"Oper... ation?"
"Ah, of course. Still under the effects of the anesthetic. Well, shouldn't be much longer before you're ready to go. I'd really like to know what this stuff actually does..."
Very slowly, the world drew into focus. Abstracted shadows gained form. The clarity steadily grew from a tiny area around Syvex, encompassing more and more of the operating room. Yes, that was it - the operation! The strange liquid in the bottle should now have been a part of him - he didn't feel much different, just weak from the operation. It wasn't anything new to him - this had been standard fare under Interstice's studies, the few times they even bothered to use anesthetic.
"It... It went fine? Doesn't seem much different..."
"We'll see about that once you've recovered. Take it easy - we're not in any hurry."
"I... I kind of am... in a hurry. Someone... on the other ship."
Syvex could vaguely perceive a frown on the doctor's face. It was fairly evident that he had been looking forward to seeing the results of the operation in full. Steadily regaining motor control, Syvex slumped off of the operating table, crashing to the ground. He righted himself against the nearby wall, hauling himself back to his normal height. His vision was definitely clearing, but something felt wrong. Throughout his body, he felt an odd malaise, but nothing he could easily describe. He could only compare it to being charged with a dark energy as he had been in Afterparty, but on a smaller scale.
"Beginning to... feel better. Can I leave now?"
The doctor sighed, his frown persisting. "Fine, fine. I assume you want to go back to the... space-zeppelin... immediately?"
"That's... That's what I'm planning."
"I'll get an escort for you. Can't just leave you to wander the ship, after all. Security measures."
The doctor stepped outside and motioned down the hall, further than Syvex could see in his temporary weakness. A duo of armed guards, two of the same guards who had escorted him here, appeared at the doorway. The three talked for a moment, then one motioned for Syvex to follow. After following them down a number of indentical angular corridors, another idea struck the serpent.
"Wait... wait. Does this ship have... records?"
The guards stopped, and one of them turned to speak. "Well, of course. You'd probably be allowed to view some of them, if that's what you want. Would you like us to escort you there?"
"If it's quick... then yes."
The guard gave an affirmative, and the two began leading Syvex in another direction. After a short while, they stopped at one of the many identical sliding doors, which opened to reveal a small room with a few computer consoles in it. A short, balding man sat behind a cramped desk to the side, watching the new arrival with wide eyes.
"We'll be waiting outside. Ask him whatever you want." The guards retreated into the hallway as the sliding doors shut behind them. Syvex took a moment to take in his surroundings. The room itself was unimpressive, but outside, between the walls, there was something much greater. A complicated network of wiring snaked and spiraled its way into and out of a massive, glowing box deep within the back wall. Syvex stood longer, gazing at the oddly transfixing sight, jostled back into reality only by a hushed, almost timid voice from behind the counter.
"Hello. Was there something you wanted to look up?"
"Um... yes, I was wondering if you had any... information on a company called 'Interstice'."
"One moment, I'll look it up."
Syvex's attention shot right back to the glowing conduit. It wasn't just the lattice of cables or even the glowing focus itself that so captivated him. He could see further, deeper. Within the mechanism itself, he could see thousands of different layers, energy pulses wildly surging through, unbound, yet orderly, a perfectly arranged excused me almost out of reality itself, perhaps the operation had let him hello more than he could ever have
"Hello?"
"Huh?"
"I said, I've found a few records on an 'Interstice'. Laboratory on an alternate Earth, was in the process of developing faster-than-light space travel when GRIMACE contacted them in that Earth's 2097. A few files were exchanged. Are there any specifics you wanted to know?"
"Look up the... 'Shadow Serpent' project, I think it was... Do you have any information on that?"
The conduit beckoned to him still. He could see every bit of it; all of the little systems and subsystems were stretched out before him. This conduit was suddenly the only thing that mattered now, this was the entire universe and nothing could ever shake him away from it no matter what happened! It was so close, he could practically touch it. He slowly drifted toward the wall, the horrible obstructing wall, and reached out toward the object of his transfixion.
The conduit exploded.
Syvex awoke once more to find a large Russian man standing over him. He immediately noticed a large, scorched hole in the wall, surrounded by debris and twisted metal. The computer consoles had been blown to pieces, though the "librarian" had apparently been safe behind his desk. Syvex tried to piece together the events of the past few minutes, but fell flat. What had he been doing? He had gone looking for information about Interstice or something, then... nothing.
"...Do you have any idea what just happened? How'd the wall explode?"
The Russian man glared at him quizzically, raising an eyebrow. "You blew up a critical power conduit, that's what. You don't remember doing that?"
Syvex shook his head. "Don't remember anything after coming in here. It... it might be because of that operation, I don't know. I guess I'll just go back to the other ship. Sorry about the mess."
"You're going to have a hard time getting over there. That conduit you destroyed also burned out all teleportation systems. I don't know what you did, but it wasn't good, to say the least. Oh, by the way. Your name's 'Syvex', right?"
"...Yeah, why?"
"We just got a transmission from the other ship from someone calling himself 'Tamerlane'. Said he was holding some girl hostage on the bridge. 'Eureka', was it? An odd name."
"Eureka... I have to get over there now."
"There's no way over there until we repair the damage, and we can't repair it while we're here. We're heading back to our home dimension for repairs soon, then returning for the team we sent over there. 31 was on that team, if for some reason you need him."
"How long will the repairs take?" Syvex was growing more agitated by the second.
"An hour or two, at least. You managed to destroy several key systems."
"I don't have 'an hour or two'! You know what, how do I get out of this ship? I'll go through space."
"...What are you talking about?"
"Space. You know, the big void out there? Ring a bell?"
"You're not seriously considering throwing yourself through space."
"I am. It's dark in space, I can make portals, and I can hold my breath for ten minutes. I don't see the problem. Where's the exit?"
"There's no convincing you otherwise, is there? The guards'll escort you to the airlock. Do yourself a favor and do this right, okay? You don't get a second chance."
"I know. Good luck with the repairs, or whatever."
Syvex followed two more guards through yet another series of bland corridors and lifts, eventually reaching a large, circular door which led into a small chamber. On the opposite wall of this chamber was a second, heavier door, which led directly into space. Assuring the guards he was ready, Syvex entered the airlock. As the door sealed behind him, he took hold of the edges of the wall behind the exterior door, ready to fling himself to the Thunderhead. He gave the signal to the guard outside, and moments later, the airlock opened with a defeaning rush of air. Syvex, not well-versed in the physics of a vacuum, was caught off-guard as he was forcefully blasted into space, scarcely having time to take a hurried gasp of air.
Then, silence. An eerie, abnormal silence, unlike anything the serpent had experienced in his short life. Not even the impossible geometries and black voids of the Malevolence-controlled manor house had prepared him for the vast nothingness of space. The utter lack of heat was almost completely unbearable, only survivable because of the quick regeneration the void gave him.
But none of this mattered now. What mattered was that Syvex's destination was very quickly heading in the other direction, disappearing into the distance. The serpent hastily created a portal leading as far away as possible, then another, then another. Slowly, the Thunderhead came back into view, growing closer with every series of portals. Syvex eventually caught up with the metal behemoth, and prepared to grab a hold of the edge of one of its many windows. Syvex successfully slammed into the side, but was immediately sent tumbling in the opposite direction. He continued frantically portalling himself closer, but this time stayed as close as possible to the zeppelin without colliding.
Syvex felt a tightness welling up in his lungs. He couldn't hold his breath much longer. Desperately, he searched the interior of the zeppelin for a dark room, any place he could get himself into. It wasn't hard to find darkness, considering the ship's condition at the time. About to suffocate, Syvex hastily opened a portal in the darkness within, launching himself painfully across the darkness-entrenched bedroom and crashing into a wall.
It was immediately apparent that something wasn't right. On the floor near the wall was a large bloodstain, trailing toward the door before stopping entirely. The room's furniture was upended; broken bits of glass and porcelain littered the floor of the large suite. There had obviously been a struggle, but those involved had long since vanished. Or... not long since. On closer inspection, the blood was still fresh, not dried as it had originally appeared. Had Tamerlane done this? It was more likely than any of the others.
Syvex made his way through the door, entering a large, empty plaza. The shattered remains of a once-ornate chandelier lay spread across the floor. There was little blood in the plaza, unlike the pools in the bedroom. Something significant had happened while Syvex was away, that much was sure. He tried a few of the lifts, but they were unresponsive - either offline entirely or busy with passengers higher up. Not stopping for a moment, Syvex began steadily ascending through each deck in sequence, taking care to remain in dark, out of the way areas. He mostly stayed to air vents and maintenance catwalks, both of which were completely blackened and empty. As he neared Deck Zero, a voice very familiar to the serpent came over the intercom, likely broadcast throughout the entire ship.
"Attention, Syvex. This is your final warning. I have Eureka, and I will not hesitate to kill her if you fail to show up. We're on the bridge, if you've still managed to avoid hearing these messages. If you want to see her alive, you have ten minutes to show up on the bridge." The sounds of a couple of men fighting were clearly audible in the background. "Actually, this place is already in use. Come to the kitchens immediately. Deck two. You have exactly ten minutes. I'll be waiting. By the way, officer, thanks for your services."
A scream reverberated through the ship before the communications line cut out. Tamerlane was going to kill Eureka if Syvex didn't hurry. He had no choice now. There was no fooling around this time. Tamerlane was going to die this round.