Guardian(Part III): Desolation

Chapter 24: Haemon

My holo device vibrated, and it showed me a map that seemed more like an enormous maze under the Dragon Spine Mountains. There must have been other people infiltrating this place. I was hardly surprised, since it was a destination for child trafficking, and would have ended up under the eyes of the Chardanish army and Military Police, eventually. There was a marker on the map labeled "control center", where the people in charge of this place must have been. Judging by the immense aura of darkness hanging over the entire mountain range, though, they couldn't have been human, or even mortal. It was possible that a Tuatha was here, even an Archdemon. I couldn't imagine which of the Seven would be trafficking children into a secret hideout in Chardan, though. All I knew about that was that it definitely wasn't Azzuran. We would find out soon enough, but Daisy wouldn't. We barely explored the place for an hour before I looked back and saw her vomiting bile onto the ground. I hardly blamed her, especially considering what we had seen. We cut our way through dozens of armed men that must have been mercenaries before Daisy couldn't take it anymore. The Mage wanted to help save these children, but she wasn't used to as much violence as myself, Mom, Artemisa, and Marcel. Artemisa and Marcel insisted on staying behind with Daisy so she could collect herself, while Mom and I pressed on. Where we went was towards the coordinates that were sent to us by this unknown ally, to the control center. As we saw our holo device markers inching towards the target marker, we could tell that we were going towards something powerful. The source of this aura of darkness was behind a large door. Whoever was doing this was behind that door.

"What do you think is in there?" I wondered, to Mom.

"We're about to find out," Mom warned.

I drew my staff, while she ignited her lightshield and aura blade emitter, set to a spear. Mom went in front of me with her shield in front of her, then she stabbed her spear through the seam between the doors and twisted it to the right. I covered my face as an explosion came from the door, then we rushed in through the smoke that was thrown up. What we arrived in was a large, round room with four doors on each wall, including the one we just ran through. What was in here with us wasn't an Archdemon, though. It was a CDM, a Convertible Defense Machine. In the Third Great War, they were used as heavily armored posts equipped with a cannon to rival a tank's, machine guns, and missile launchers, that could easily be turned into large bipedal walkers in case they needed to move forward to provide battlefield support. This one was in its stationary mode, less of a threat than if it were in its bipedal configuration, but still a threat nonetheless. It was defending the hallway adjacent to the one we entered the commons from, with no intention of allowing us to pass. It began to fire its machine gun at us, and Mom quickly raised her lightshield, shattering every bolt of plasma that touched it.

"What is this thing!?" Mom shouted, over the sound of the gun.

"It's called a 'CDM'!" I answered. "And it looks like it's defending that hallway. I'll bet whoever's here is behind it. We have to push it back before we can destroy it!"

"The one time I wish I hadn't given my bow to Finn," Mom sighed.

"Keep it busy!" I advised. I turned myself into a lizard to crawl towards the CDM more discreetly, then I turned back into myself to raise my staff and slam it into the CDM's front armor as hard as I could, and send it back through the hallway that it was sitting in front of. I hit it a few more times, sending it even further, then Mom charged forward, ramming her spear into the machine's armor, and sending it all the way to the end of the hall, and we ran through it before it could come back. We were in a larger room that had a dozen cargo crates against the walls. A wider area to fight in, for me, Mom, and the CDM. I could cut loose, now. The machine's armor raised, and its chassis unfolded two mechanical legs to walk on. It would be a whole different fight, now.

"Ready yourself," Mom warned.

"I'm always ready," I said, smiling. I took off with my propulsion boots as the CDM's machine gun pointed at us. The weapon aimed right at me and began to fire, and I twirled my staff in front of me to deflect the rounds fired my way. The rest of the CDM stayed facing towards Mom, who charged at it as fast as she could. Before she could reach it, though, its cannon fired and hit her with an explosion that sent her into the wall. Her aura shield shattered, but her armor protected her. I took the chance to go for the cannon to destroy it, but it suddenly unfolded a metal flap from its side and quickly turned its entire body to hit me with it, sending me flying upward, crashing into the ceiling. The missile launcher then pointed my way, set to the storm enchantment, and I flew from the ceiling as storm missiles began to fire from it. I then thought up an idea as I flew away from the storm missiles. The CDM began to slide across the ground on its feet, and I chased it down with the storm missiles following me. I cut it off and grabbed onto it, then warped to the other side of it before the missiles could hit me, allowing them to hit the machine instead. The CDM's entire outer armor crackled with electricity, then it fell to its knees. I twirled my staff in front of it as fast as I could, making sure the blunts crashed against the exoskeleton every time they came around. There were dozens and dozens of dents in the CDM's metal by the time I was done swinging my staff, including knocking its cannon off. Now, I would finish it. I flew into the air, then dove towards it with my staff pointed downward. The armor was at its thinnest on its roof, which hid its power supply, so it was no trouble to crash into the roof with enough force to destroy it, blowing it to pieces.

"Mom?" I called. "Are you alright?"

Suddenly, a small explosion came from a pile of scraps from the cargo crates, and Mom walked out of it.

"I'm fine," she answered. "What about you?"

"I'm fine, too," I promised. "And the CDM's destroyed."

"Well done," Mom complimented. Suddenly, our holo devices vibrated. When we answered them, I saw Nato's image projected over mine, and Mom's had Finn's over hers.

"Everyone," Finn began. "We've cleared out their War Machine development wing, and... Mom!?"

There was a genuine feeling of shock from him, knowing that we were both here.

"Hello, Finn," Mom greeted.

"What are you two doing here?" Finn wondered. "Are you the new team?"

"How many teams are there?" I asked.

"Before you arrived, three," Nato answered. "I'm with Fireteam Pegasus in the bioengineering labs."

"And we're in a War Machine manufacturing plant," said Finn. "But we've stopped it from building and programming any more."

"And we've killed everything in the bioengineering labs," Nato reported. "What we saw here will give me nightmares."

"We were sent coordinates leading to a place here called 'control center'," said Mom. "Any idea what's there?"

"No," Finn admitted.

"What exactly is going on, anyway?" I wondered. "We tracked a person trafficking ring to this location."

"We'll explain everything when we get back to the Home Base," said Nato. "But so far, it sounds like all of our objectives are complete. Maddy's already sent the captive children to the Home Base, the War Machines are destroyed, and the bioengineered demons are dead. We've reduced this place to nothing."

"Not yet," Mom denied. "All of you get back to the Home Base. We still have something to finish. We'll meet you there once we're done."

"Be careful, Mom," Finn wished. "You too, Haemon."

Both Finn and Nato's holographic projections disappeared, and we went further towards the source of this aura of darkness. It began to feel more and more like a Tuatha's as we drew closer to it. We entered a long hallway, which had a door at the end, with the immense aura of darkness behind it. Whoever was behind that door could undoubtedly sense our presence. They were ready for us, but we were also ready for them. Mom and I gave each other one more look, then we threw the door open. It was an Archdemon!