Chapter 2

  A Bump In The Night

  "What do you mean the alarm is coming from inside?"

  "I mean exactly that, there is an alarm coming from inside."

  Vael-Shyr rolled her eyes at Eval'Lara, "How ever did you make it past the scout academy?"

  Before Evel'Lara could reply, Vael-Shyr had already entered the code in her keypad to the container module to her left.

  Eval'Lara watched as she pulled out a plasma rifle, a standard-issue Vesh-Arc-99 with pulsed-Q-switching. The 99-centimeter-long rifle weighed a dense 6 kilograms—a heavy-pattern frame that would have exhausted a human scout, but felt like a balanced feather in Vael-Shyr's high-density elven grip. Its chassis was finished in a matte-black Carbon-Boron Lattice, interwoven with the faint, glowing silver filaments of the Tir-Null Guard. Though sleek, the weapon possessed the massive inertia and fracture-toughness to cave in a reinforced bulkhead; with Vael-Shyr's strength behind it, the buttstock wasn't just a handle—it was a thirteen-pound sledgehammer designed to shatter the Vael-Rheo hide of a monster.

  Even at 1.74 meters and 58.3 kilograms, Vael-Shyr looked extremely formidable. Eval'Lara was nearly the same height and build, but Vael-Shyr was an excellent soldier before being recruited as a scout for the VDF. Eval'Lara had instead spent her time and Essendra on more cognitive magic and abilities.

  "Shoot first and ask questions later?" Eval'Lara asked.

  "No. We are elves, not humans. We are a welcoming committee."

  "So why the Vesh-Arc?"

  "I heard in Sapphirehold, they have begun the tradition of hitting a container filled with candy at parties."

  "Really? That's a new one… so that is for?..."

  "The party, of course." Vael-Shyr said, "Monitor the cameras and keep an eye on the perimeter while I scout the bunker?"

  "Vye, Vye," Evel'Lara nodded as she walked over to her command console and began typing something in the controls, "Patrol bots are en route. We'll have eyes on the area in a few moments. I will patch it through to your comms."

  Vael-Shyr nodded as she placed her helmet on her head; the polarized visor equipped with active night-vision made it impossible to see her eyes.

  Bulkhead

  The door hissed as it closed. Another blastdoor, one of the many hundreds found throughout the base, to ensure direct cutoffs if zones became compromised.

  The magnetic seals of Vael-Shyr's rig exhaled a pressurized hiss as the Vesh-Arc-99 integrated with her tactile array, a virtualized HUD appeared on the top left of her visor—her vitals appeared shortly later in the top-right.

  Before Vael-Shyr could comment, Evel'Lara beat her to it, "Phenomenal vitals," she heard her scouting partner say confidently into the comms.

  "You can keep the lights off," Vael-Shyr said over the comms as she continued walking down the dark corridor.

  "You're not afraid of the dark?" Evel'Lara asked.

  "Only when I'm in the same room as you," Vael-Shyr confirmed. "There's no point in wasting energy when these visors have night vision and a polarized lens."

  "Spoken like a true bot," Eval'Lara said. "Scouting drones and patrol bots have rounded the corner, 2000 meters from the source. I'll patch their feed to your vision now."

  A moment later, Vael-Shyr had access to a grid of eight camera angles. Direct visual data from the floating drones and the patrol bots. They were all named something generic in their upper-left visual panel.

  BOT-1 led the group, followed by BOT-2, BOT-3, and BOT-4; DRONE-3 and DRONE-4 followed behind them–DRONE-1 and 2 guarded the BOT's flank. They briskly pedaled towards the destination. Vael'Shy was 2800 meters away.

  Vael-Shyr did not worry. Even if her visor failed, elves still had natural night-vision, but the Valoran Defense Force liked to remain technologically superior to the Celestial Elves.

  A faint tremor, then a slight rumble, occurred around Vael-Shyr.

  "Magnetic storm. Outside," Evel'Lara beat her to it again.

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  Vael-Shyr continued in the dark of the hallways and corridors—as she did, she wondered about how, in the next few weeks, the base would be more lively—and if she even wanted that. Evel'Lara liked having company, but Vael-Shyr had gotten used to having just her partner around—and the maintenance bots.

  "Got can update from Valenydria," her partner said over her comms.

  "And?" Vael-Shyr asked.

  "Transport and first crew are set to portal into our dimension within the next 48-hours."

  "Excellent," Vael-Shyr said.

  Only silenced returned.

  "Evel?" Vael-Shyr asked aloud.

  "Sorry," Evel'Lara said, "You didn't sound too happy to hear that."

  "I just have a hard time getting people to like me," Vael-Shyr said.

  "What's there not to like?"

  "Funny," Vael-Shyr replied.

  "What?"

  "I'm not like you, Evel. I spent most of my life navigating dark tunnels in Zephyria and tinkering away on service bots and dropships."

  "Right. But they are your teammates. They've been through similar training as us."

  "That's even worse."

  "How so?"

  "Because if we've all been trained the same and I still show them how different I am, then the only explanation left is that I'm just not a normal elf."

  "Vael…"

  The HUD went red.

  "Another proximity alarm. 5000 meters from the command console."

  "How?!" Vael-Shyr asked, surprised.

  "Don't know. Perimeter shields, sensors, and radar are still one-hundred percent phenomenal… Let me run and check some diagnostics for any potential environmental anomalies."

  "M?r?"

  "Couldn't be…" Evel'Lara said, "Void Rifts are unable to self-propagate here in 24E."

  "Stowaways?"

  "Who in the Diel would want to come here?"

  "You're right."

  Vael-Shyr checked her vision—she was now 2000 meters from the first breach. She checked the bots on her HUD. They were still waddling towards the breach.

  "Will you be okay?" Evel'Lara asked over the comms.

  "Why? Is something heading my way?" Vael-Shyr asked.

  "No. I am just asking because I'm worried about how you may be feeling."

  "Oh." "Yes, I will be fine."

  The way she said it, Evel'Lara believed her.

  Perimeter caught something flying near us; the automatic turrets sent an ultrasonic ping and confirmed it was biological, with no shielding or armor. The turrets opened fire automatically. Evel'Lara watched on her command console as the cameras from Turret-5 and Turret-6 opened fire at something unseeable in the distance.

  "Outer perimeter caught another flier. Turrets chased it away."

  "Shooting at birds again?"

  "Not a bird—at least—not a normal bird. It absorbs most of our soundwaves and radar whenever we try to probe its telemetry."

  "Contact!"

  Vael-Shyr's HUD showed the camera on BOT-4 went dark.

  "BOT-4?" Vael-Shyr asked aloud. Something would have had to pass the group of bots to take out BOT-4.

  "I reviewed the footage and data, and nothing got past the other BOTs and DRONEs," Evel'Lara said.

  "The only thing that could have done that would be M?r or a Shadow Elf."

  "There can be no M?r in this realm. And the facility's sensors have not picked up any biological—"

  Although she was 1500 meters away, Evel'Lara heard it first. The acoustic sensors in the corridors caught faint echoes and vibrations—then it grew more intense—

  —Vael-Shyr heard it now. It sounded like keratin on metal—scattering—quickly.

  "Vael, something coming down the corridor. Fast."

  "On it," Vael-Shyr said as she got down on one knee and into a kneeling, unsupported position. Her rifle's scope flickered on. Infrared.

  The crawling got louder.

  Tat. Tat. Tat.

  Vael-Shyr focused.

  Tat. Tat. Tat.

  "930 meters from you now, Vael."

  A hungry crawl.

  Tat. Tat. Tat.

  Vael-Shyr gripped her rifle. She was ready. Her vitals stayed the same.

  "748."

  Scraping.

  Tat. Tat. Tat.

  "419—gaining speed. One meter-per-second."

  Tat. Tat. Tat.

  Dense thudding on metal.

  Vael-Shyr gripped harder. She exhaled. Her vitals stayed plateaued.

  "320. 217. 115."

  Tat! Tat! Tat!

  She aimed.

  The echo had grown to its loudest. It was a desperate hunger.

  "It is right on top of you. Shoot it."

  Nothing.

  Evel'Lara's heart felt like it was about to beat out of her chest. "Vael?"

  Nothing. Silence.

  "Vael? Why are you okay??"

  Still. Nothing.

  Evel'Lara typed a command into her console and gained emergency access to Vael-Shyr's visor and HUD.

  Nothing.

  Nothing was there.

  "There's nothing here?" Vael-Shyr said.

  "What do you mean, there's nothing there. We have the data, and we both heard it," Evel'Lara stared at the large screen in front of her—Vael-Shyr's point-of-view—she was still kneeling unsupported, her arms and hands still supporting the Arc-99. The infrared scope was dark except for the dimmed lunakyr crystals that were evenly placed on the floor and ceiling, just in case non-elven species had to work at the research station.

  "There is nothing here, and the scattering stopped."

  "Impossible."

  "You're seeing what I'm seeing, right? It's definitely possible." Vael-Shyr sighed as she got up. Her blood pressure spiked slightly as she stood quickly. For a brief moment, she felt light-headed, but the feeling quickly went away.