Spiral of Light

Chapter 24: "The important thing is we are still here."

The tunnel was still filled with swirling plumes of rock dust. Up ahead, a shimmering blue light twinkled, as the tunnel turned a sharp corner. Many of the sensors and features in his helmet had been badly damaged from the days fighting, and he hoped that Silhouette did not have any more beam traps, as he would be unable to detect them. With a prayer to the light, he ran headlong through the tunnel and turned the corner.

He couldn't believe it. The tunnel ended up ahead, and there was a shimmering forcefield. Beyond that, millions of boxes, crates and cargo of every shape and size flew through the central package stream. These series of tunnels had burrowed so far into the pillar of Zerzura they had been able to connect it with the central package stream. The central package stream was a way of shipping freight at top speed to any level and its corresponding depot in the pillar city.

"Its over Silhouette." Moloch said. "All your creatures are dead, your equipment is in our possession. You've lost."

"Its not over until I say it is. Legion filth." Silhouette spat.

"Drop the act. Turn off the obscura bracer and kneel down with your hands on your head. Failure to comply with my instructions and I'll melt you on the spot."

Silhouette didn't move. It just stood there with its arms crossed.

"Aren't you the least bit curious about the things you've seen?"

"Turn off the obscura bracer and kneel down." Moloch repeated this time letting the anger into his voice. He was done with this being's games.

"Very Well." It moved to turn off the bracer. Then with a shimmer, it vanished from sight.

"Stupid Centurion." It said with a tittering laugh.

"Void take you!" Moloch said, cursing himself for not just melting Silhouette when he had the chance. Now it had activated some kind of personal cloaking field.

A hard kick to the abdomen doubled him over, then several quick sharp strikes to his knee and head. His battered helmet clanged against his head. He chose a direction and lunged, missing and running straight into the wall.

Once again Silhouette laughed. "You and that odious beggar slaughtered all my creatures, destroyed irreplaceable equipment and ruined several cycles of planning. Its voice echoed all around the tight confines of the tunnel.

Moloch thought he saw a glimmer of light bend strangely next to the forcefield. "So that's where you're hiding, he thought. You must be projecting your voice down the tunnel to throw me off" He pretended to lunge again in another direction, bouncing off the other tunnel wall and whirling around in a dramatic display of frustration, each step carefully taking himself just in reach of the forcefield.

"Where are you?" He shouted, feigning frustration.

He was answered only with malicious laughter.

He saw a coffin sized package detach itself from the central stream and using regrav impellers it quickly navigated itself against the forcefield.

"I would love to stay and watch you continue to run into walls, but I promise when we meet again, you will die." It said, as the forcefield deactivated.

Moloch lept at where he thought the shape would be. He grabbed a body and brutally slammed it against the wall. He heard a sharp crack, the sound of something delicate breaking and then the cloaking field fell away and the obscura bracer flickered and winked out. They rolled around in the dust, punching and kicking, until he felt something like a hot poker drive into the muscle of his thigh. He howled in pain, and pulled a small scalpel shaped knife out of his leg, throwing it away.

Silhouette got up and ran for the coffin package, a gleaming metal case that was just big enough to hold her, reinforced with a shock absorbing lining and small oxygen generator. It floated patiently with its padded door swung open, waiting to receive her.

She turned and Moloch saw her face, it was a lean angular face, possessing a cold beauty and intelligence, and her eyes were lit with an intense fury. Her light brown hair, swirling in the wind generated by the packages whizzing by in the stream. He got to his feet and made one final dive to grapple with her, but she kicked him in the chest with both feet, sending them flying in different directions.

Her thin lips pressed into a triumphant smile, and for a single moment as her eyes stared into his visor, boring with icy intensity into his very soul. She went sailing backwards directly into the coffin package and he went tumbling once again into the dust of the tunnel. The door on the coffin package snapped shut, and through a very narrow clear viewport he could see her laughing at him through the glass, as the package detached itself and then shot up into the package stream completely disappearing from view amongst the millions of other items hurtling through the colossal circular chamber. The forcefield snapped shut. Moloch stood there for a moment and just watched the millions of packages flood by. He knew he would see her again.

After a few minutes Moloch made his way back down the tunnel. The first thing he noticed was Silhouettes control panel had been entirely dismantled, with several crucial pieces of tek missing from inside with the rest melted into useless blobs of metal. The tunnel door to the outside was now open, and Salazaar had been moved to rest against the console. A small oxygen rebreather had been attached to his nose and he clutched Trench's voidblade in his one good hand. Forrester was nowhere to be seen.

Moloch squatted beside Salazaar. His eyelids fluttered open and he looked at Moloch.

"I'm still here, Centurion." He said. "Forrester said he'd see you around. Then he opened the door up for us, gave me a shot of medicine from his injectrix, took apart the console and left. Apart from being mutilated, whatever was in that shot has me feeling much better."

"The beggars guild is renowned for their knowledge of medicines and therapies. It was nice that Forrester shared some of it with you." Moloch said, squatting down and inspecting the disassembled panel. Whatever tek had been in there, Forrester had artfully removed it while destroying the rest of the console. All that was left were jumbled up components and melted circuitry. Moloch sighed and stood up looking at Salazaar.

"That Forrester saved our lives. I'm grateful for him." Salazaar replied, with a hacking cough, and spit some bloody froth to the other side of the dais.

What happened with Silhouette?" Salazaar asked, as he reached into his shirt pocket and took out a cigar. Half of it was crushed flat, damaged by his fighting with the hybrids. He muttered to himself and broke off the ruined part and put the other half in his mouth, clamping down in it with his teeth.

"Shes gone too. Void take it." Moloch cursed.

"Don't worry about it Centurion. The important thing is we are still here." Salazaar looked at his hand stump.

"Well most of us anyway." He said with a wry grin.

"I'm glad to see your twisted sense of humor is still intact Constable."

"I doubt I'll be a constable much longer, the Drydellians will have little use for a crippled employees."

"They don't do bionic or cloned replacement medicine?"

Salazaar feigned a look of mock surprise.

"With the Drydellian healthcare plan, the best thing I can hope for is a desk job."

"We'll see about that. On your foot Constable, let's hope Krasus and the rest of the boys are faring better than we did."

"Very funny Centurion." Salazaar said, as they shared a pained laugh.

Moloch helped him up and they slowly made their way out of the vault and back down the tunnel to reunite with Krasus and the rest of the Legionnaires.