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originally posted in:The Black Garden
Edited by Hobbes92:
4/23/2015 7:17:05 PM
1
Domitoris Awakening Chapter 6
This is a fan-fiction. It focuses on a particular Exo named Ithamar during the tale end of the Golden Age, at this point. This is the Six chapter and finds the Exo and the security team he is part of in danger on a meteor base that has been infected with an unknown enemy. A special thanks to SaviorsBlood for helping me with the proofreading.
Domitoris Awakening Chapter 6: A Change of Plans
As soon as we cleared the room, we decided it was best to get back to the other side of the meteor. Jk-Bx, by some strange means, had followed us to this side of the meteor and explained he was coming along in case we needed help. When we reached the other side, where Max awaited, we swapped little conversation and made a mad dash back to the others.
“Pant, pant, pant, pant,” Jk-Bx said as he ran along.
“What are you saying ‘pant’ for?” Max asked.
“Pretending I’m panting from running too much,” Jk-Bx responded. “You know, because I don’t have lungs.”
“You sir, are an idiot,” Bm-Bx said over the com link.
“We’re almost there; be ready,” Charles said.
“Why, what’s wrong?” Bm-Bx asked.
“Are you being followed?” John snapped.
“No,” Charles said. “But we can’t have much time until they come for everyone.”
In a matter of minutes, we came to the entrance to the panic room and Jk-Bx was banging on the door with both hands.
“Let us in! Let us in!” Jk-Bx demanded.
“Okay, okay,” Bm-Bx said in a firm tone. “Jeez, give a guy a-”
After releasing the lock, the door was thrown open and we rushed inside.
“Monsters, zombies, aliens, and old Liberians!” Jk-Bx exclaimed, jumping up and down, throwing his arms around. “Aiiieee! Call the Vanguard, call the Marines, and definitely call Chuck Norris!”
“Calm down,” I said. “Where is Wess?”
“He’s just talking to Cicatrix,” Bm-Bx said. “And Wess doesn’t sound happy…”
We were led to a small conference room where John and Wess were conversing with one another about Cicatrix, no doubt.
“I don’t care!” Wess yelled in a livid tone. “I don’t want him on my security escort anymore; Cicatrix has too much of an enigma. First he’s extradited from the teachings as a protégé under the Traveler, not to mention how Shoo-Lawn Inc. rejected him from being involved with their company, then he’s seen conveying with associates of Mr. Dudley on several occasions, and lately we’ve had many disappearances of security personnel and Cicatrix is always wondering off to do his own…his own…whatever it is he does when he’s not around. I don’t even want him in the same vicinity as Julia or myself. Never wanted him on in the first place, though he was different when we first met…”
“Alright, alright,” John said, holding up his hands. “I’ll get rid of him.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “What has Cicatrix done now?”
“We don’t know,” John said.
“Cicatrix went for a little walk while you guys were gone,” Henry said as he walked into the room. “I scanned him to see if he may be contaminated with anything and well…he is.”
“Contaminated with what?” Charles asked.
“I don’t know,” Henry said. “But it’s the strangest thing; organic like.”
“Can we deal with this later?” Max asked. “I don’t like Cicatrix any more than any of you, but we have a real problem right now that is more urgent.”
Wess and John turned and looked at Charles and me.
“We can’t wait for rescue,” Charles said. “We made contact with those creatures on the other side and we don’t know how much time we have until they figure out how to get in here.”
“How many did you come across?” John asked.
“We only encountered a little over a dozen maybe,” Jk-Bx responded. “But based on Charles’ motion sensors and some kind of ‘nest’ that Bm-Bx and I came across…I’d say we better leave rather than discuss the numbers; besides, even I can only count to the 132nd place of pi.”
“No debate then,” Wess said. “Is there anything we can fly out of the hanger?”
“Depends whether or not we can open the hanger doors on sublevel-S5,” Charles said. “Should be something down there we can piece together and I can pilot otherwise we’re stuck out here until we’re either found and destroyed or just left drifting through space.”
“Very well,” Wess said. “I’ll get Julia and get ready to go. Ithamar, I’d like you to get Cicatrix.”
I left them and went to where Bm-Bx said he last saw Cicatrix; in one of the bunk rooms. When I found him, he had taken off his mask and set it down on a table that was in the center of the small room and between bunks. He was facing a mirror and was rubbing something on his face…
“Ithamar, I presume,” Cicatrix said. “Come to apprehend me?”
I didn’t answer.
“I suppose you’ve met the locals?” Cicatrix said. “Quite skinny aren’t they? I wonder where they come from. I’m sure you think the same thing. I also guess it’s time for us to get moving again, but I just had to clean up a little bit…”
Cicatrix reached down to his right and rubbed a pad into a small container encasing what looked like some kind of metal polisher.
“Why do you hide who you really are?” Cicatrix questioned. “Are you ashamed? Or protecting something perhaps? Heh, what’s left to protect I wonder? Aside from yourself…”
“Let’s go,”
“Almost done,” Cicatrix remarked. “You know what Charles is thinking don’t you? You do know that he is one of the ‘original Exos’, of old, do you not? Well, not THE original Exo species, but second. Charles is always standing behind you when we go on foot, and watches you like a hawk; makes you wonder...”
“We are leaving,” I said, hearing the others in the background.
“There, all done,” Cicatrix said, setting down his rubbing pad and turning towards me. “What do you think?”
Remove one mask to reveal another; Cicatrix’s “real” face was rather disturbing. Polished to a shine, his silver face was quite daunting with his simple smile that had no cheek bones. Two black eye holes that possessed no eyes, as if they were consumed by darkness; three tears-as if constantly running down his face without ending or dripping- were under the left eye and he had no nose. For the most part, there were no other facial features, like one of the two masks you might see at a staged theatre on a poster with the smile or frown, except the smile on this face was small and closed.
“Something wrong?” Cicatrix asked as he walked towards me, his mouth unmoving. Handing me his Oni mask he says to me: “A memento to remember me by.”
Cicatrix continued to walk me and I followed him; it was such an ugly mask, perhaps Jk-Bx or Bm-Bx might find some use of it.
“Who’s ready to leave this death trap?” Cicatrix asked as we approached the others.
Wess hid Julia behind him.
“Come here,” John motioned for Cicatrix to follow him around a corner, out of view.
“We need to have a little talk,” John began. “I’ve been instructed to tell you this now; you’re off this security team when we reach Charlemagne. Also, on a minor note; what the heck did you do with your mask, now you just look plain…creepy.”
“John,” Cicatrix began in a soft tone, shaking his head slowly and putting his hands together. “I understand what this is about; this will all be over soon…so soon. Now you want me to stay away from Ambassador Wess, if he really is an ambassador, and his oh-so-precious daughter Julia. Have no worries, this…all of this, will be over soon.”
John wasn’t sure what to say.
“No worries,” Cicatrix said, patting John on the face. “I feel people should see the real me; that’s why I did the face lift.”
Cicatrix walked back to us and John was close behind, seeming very perplexed.
“Cicatrix, you’re on point,” I said to him directly.
“I don’t take orders from you,” Cicatrix barked at me as he got close to my face. “Only John can tell me that and you’re not him.”
“You’re right,” I said, Cicatrix turning away. “But I can do what John and Wess can’t.”
Cicatrix stopped and turned towards me.
“And that is…?”Cicatrix asked.
“Make the voices go away,” I replied.
You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. Cicatrix just turned and faced the panic room’s entrance.
“Let’s get going,” John said.
“Bad news,” Henry said. “Those suits we brought from the supply closet are missing. Has anyone seen them?”
“Nope,” Cicatrix said. “Relax, doubt that there are any toxins in the air anymore; go ahead and do a check.”
Henry was skeptical, but did a scan anyway, only to be surprised and perplexed by the results which revealed negative on any signs of the toxins.
“See? No more toxicity alerts for a while,” Cicatrix said. “I took a little walk earlier. Shouldn’t be any more trouble; for now anyway.”
Charles was looking at me; his eyes had a strange glint to them.
Target visible,” Charles’ HUD informed him. “Error, correcting. Target not visible. Error, unknown visual...”
Charles looked down at the ground, trying to shake it off.
“You alright?” Bm-Bx asked Charles. “You’ve been acting odd since Ithamar showed up? Seen him before?”
Charles gazed at me from across the room.
“I’m not sure,” Charles said.
“You really should let me do a diagnostic on your mind,” Jk-Bx said. “It’d do you wonders, kind of like going to a massage specialist.”
“We could work wonders on you,” Bm-Bx said enthusiastically. “Trust us.”
Charles just looked at both of them.
“Unable to clear errors,” Charles HUD informed “Requires level 12 clearances to repair manually, or Traveler emancipation alpha code to open fetters and allow manual override. Protocol nine active…”
“Leave me alone,” Charles snapped.
“Okay, some other time then,” Jk-Bx said, slowly backing away from Charles.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” John said. “We’re moving out; stock up on what you can carry fellas. This a one way ticket, no turning back when we leave.”
[b]Continued below[/b]
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39 Replies[i]Forty Five minutes later….[/i] “We’ve been walking for hours,” Jk-Bx whined. “Are we even vaguely close to the hanger yet?” “We’re not too far away,” Max said. “We can’t go very fast. Too much noise and we may wake the neighbors. By the way Jk-Bx, your English is despicable.” I was curious: Why were those ships carrying the remains of the vessel harboring these creatures? Was this intentional? Drop off their bounty and see what happens, like some kind of demented experiment? Or did they realize that they had a real problem on their plate and decided to pass the buck? “We’re about to head into hangar S4,” Cicatrix informed us in a sarcastic tone. “No motion detected sirs; or heat signatures. Or biological life forms, for that matter.” We came to a door that had a red “S4” on it and Cicatrix opened it to reveal a catwalk that was high above the hangar… “Uh, how did we get up here?” Jk-Bx asked. “We shouldn’t be here, why didn’t we go down to the hangar?” “They’re down there,” Cicatrix said. “But I thought you said-” John began to say. “I said I didn’t detect any life forms, heat, or motion,” Cicatrix responded. “I didn’t say I didn’t sense anything at all; they’re lifeless, dormant at the moment. No heartbeat of any kind or sign of any internal organ function to be honest…they’re so hollow, right Henry?” “That is correct,” Henry said. “I was going to get to that…” “We must be very, very quiet,” Cicatrix said, pressing his index finger to his lips. The catwalk we were on was purposed for maintenance of ventilation or electrical systems. On the hangar floor below, you could see…”them” lying around on tops of work tables, ships, toolboxes. An accumulated pile of bodies was seen, surrounded by a large pool of blood; but the strangest thing of all was… “What the heck is that?” Bm-Bx whispered and pointed at a tall creature that floated in the air. We thought we heard whispers, voices of people all around us as the flying silhouette glided towards the amassed pile of corpses. The creature held up a claw and a green flame illuminated… “Hey, they’re waking up,” Bm-Bx noted. Slowly, the creatures began to awaken and surround the tall creature that stood before the pile of corpses. Charles drew out his rifle to use the scope to get a closer look. The smaller, grayer counterparts began to form ranks around the tall creature; the smaller ones were all lead by a large, armored leader who was escorted by five, moderately sized beings of similar stature and same red, bone like armor; but they carried what resembled firearm devices instead of a sword. They all began to kneel behind the tall, hovering individual … “Are they…worshipping the dead?” Wess asked. “I don’t know,” I said. “I had a dream like this once,” Bm-Bx joked. The tall creature touched its void hand to the one that barred the green flame… “No heat signature,” Cicatrix said. “Or anything that resembles a living life form.” Henry added. The whispers progressed to screams and cries of help and pain; we heard static as the tall beast released an emerald inferno onto the corpses. Engulfed in the entrancing green flames, they glowed eerily in the dark. The bodies burned slowly and the blood around them on the floor began to boil…chanting began among the creatures ranks. “Deamoni,” the monsters chanted. A fog filled the room and the green flame formed an oval over the blazing corpses. A dark figure appeared from the portal, which turned into a head, it spoke in a dark and twisted tongue. Chanting continued and the tall creature cowered before the head; it was shaped like that of one of the sword-wielding beast, but it had only two green eye that burned with anger, one of which was snuffed out. Thick darkness consumed all of the light in the room and the infrastructure seemed too grown as the ritual continued. “A ritual, to contact their god or leader, I don't know?” Cicatrix asked. Must be reporting in…” The head grew angry; gnashing its black teeth at what the devils had to say to him. “I’ve heard this language before,” I said. “Long ago. Far away. In a once beautiful place turned dark.” “What?” Max asked. “In an old data file,” I responded. Jk-Bx and Bm-Bx looked at each other in confusion and then at me. “No way. We’ve seen almost every file out there and this is completely new. Then again, we have no idea how old they are,” Jk-Bx grasped. “We must be weary of our newfound friends,” Wess said. “Let’s keep going.” A roar echo’s below. The oval snapped shut and the whispers and screams stopped suddenly; the pile of bodies was reduced to a pile of bones covered in a dark liquid. Sitting atop of the hoard of bones, a goblet made from black stone, and carved to look like a ripped open heart. The tall creature dipped the goblet into the boiling blood, turned to the others around it and hissed. Only Charles, Cicatrix, and I stayed behind to see what happened. “I’ve seen enough,” Charles said as the dark goblet was passed around. “Yeah,” I said. “Delicious,” Cicatrix said as he walked away. The roars and echoes lingered behind us as we walked along, giving us a lot to think about. We continued along the catwalk for the next fifteen minutes or so, passing through a corridor of hard rock that had been blasted out. Our walkway was wide enough for two men to walk beside each other, but tools lied around where workers abandoned them, making them noisy obstacles to avoid. We were about to pass over a catwalk that led to a junction of rooms… “Good thing we’re close to the next sublevel,” Bm-Bx said, not paying attention to where he was walking. “I mean, as soon as we get a ship we’re-” Bm-Bx hurried along, not paying attention, and knocked over the edge of the catwalk a tool box; which fell into the dark abyss that lay below. The tools made a terrible racket as they fell before falling silent once more. We all stood in silence that was suddenly broken by a very-soul shattering shriek that was close by, and it was soon preceded by many others. “Charles, are you getting this?” I asked him as flashing warning on my HUD indicated massive movement. Charles provided me with a M.S. modem, to which I was much obliged. “Yes, unfortunately,” Charles said. “Motion sensors are sporadic, especially behind us, but above and below this passage I’m detecting an extreme motion.” We felt the cat walk underneath our feet begin to tremble, like many feet were behind us or something big was coming. “Run!” John shouted. We ran for the doorways in front of us. Cicatrix ran through one, but it slid closed right behind him. “Hey!” Max yelled. “Open up!” Cicatrix didn’t answer and the door didn’t open. “Go through another!” John ordered. The junction’s four doorways that led to locations that we weren’t familiar with, so this didn’t help our situation. Cicatrix chose the second entrance one to the left; so John, Henry, Max, and Wess, who was carrying Julia in his arms, opted for the door second to their right, only to have the entry slide closed behind them. “You take the far left and I’ll take the right,” I said to Charles. “Bm-Bx, Jk-Bx; you two decide which of you is going with Charles or me.” The trembling in the catwalk grew worse as we split up. I found myself running down a narrow corridor with Bm-Bx behind me, having no idea where it might lead to. “I hate these situations,” Bm-Bx said. “I have no idea what’s down this junction, but judging by the rise in temperature we’re near the core of the meteor; where the furnace is.” “Furnace?” “Yeah, how else you think we keep this place warm?” We came to a tool room overlooking a workshop with a long, open window. John and Wess were on the other side of it in a cafeteria, but Cicatrix and Charles were nowhere to be seen. “Charles, where are you?” I asked. “Close by; Jk-Bx and I are in the room adjacent to you,” He responded. “Where’s Cicatrix?” Wess asked. “I can’t reach him,” John responded. The workshop door one floor lower had begun to be battered against violently. “Is that banging behind us?” Max said. “Or in front of us? We can’t see from here very well, the window leads out to a catwalk that runs along a wall into the area you all are in.” “Shut up,” Charles said. “Can’t see anything from here; no windows to my office or doors for that matter. I can hear them at the door pretty well though. We are close to Ithamar though; I can pick you up on my HUD.” “Wait, aren’t they behind us as well?” Bm-Bx asked. “Those doors must be keeping them at bay,” Max said. “Not for long,” Charles commented. The door below was suddenly broken down, skidded across the floor. Purple rays shot through the doorway and struck the walls and machinery in the room. “Well, looks like they can shoot too,” Cicatrix said over the radio. “Where are you?!” John asked in a loud tone. “Took the correct door,” Cicatrix remarked. “Don’t worry Captain; I’ll wait up for you…wouldn’t want to leave a wrong last impression…” “Whatever,” Max commented to himself. Small grey creatures escorted by slightly taller beasts filled the room. Two large monsters stepped in as well, wielding swords. “What do we do?” Jk-Bx asked. [b]Continued below[/b]
