'This is definitely the residue from the electronic manufacturing.' Rydel collected some of the dust in between his fingers and rubbed it against one another, 'though I don't know what it really is for, for supposedly a cult-like organization. This really looks like it came from a lab, or a factory.'
'I don't know.' Cellica shook her head in response. Then everything turned dark as they entered the tunnel once again when the train goes on it's returning trip.
As they get within thirty meters of the gate and well into the tunnel, she activated her Eye once again to see through the metal barrier. This is the back end of an automatic assembly line, or so it seems.
As far as she can tell, there isn't any actual workers or droids within the massive room. The only sets of defensive systems are some video and possibly audio surveillance microphones scattered around..
'Rydel, turn on the interference generators.' Cellica called out, and Rydel followed exactly as she told. The other side of the tunnel just seemed like an ominous cave with lots high end technology operating all on its own as if being possessed. Both of them hopped off the wagon before more rubbish and components are being dumped in and landed softly onto the ground. There is indeed no one nearby with a simple eye check.
'Alright, stay close.' Cellica took a deep breath and focuses on the more penetrative spectrum of light that she can see, and started looking into the nearest corridor of the base and scanning for Zel. Rydel followed with the plan and went ahead to connect his digitally masked personal interface with one connection port near the entrance and started downloading the layout of the facility.
'Just hold on, Zel.' Rydel thought to himself as the progress bar gradually fills up.
'I hope you are all nice and comfortable in there. Welcome to your new home.' Zel woke up in a bed, completely paralyzed. A voice thundered into his head and gave him a rather serious case of headache. It varies in pitch from syllable to syllable through an unnatural range, from the unpleasant Sir Deva to the not so nice Lady Lily and back.
'Who the hell talks like this?' Zel complained, then realised that his own voice sounded no different. He opened his eyes and tried to turn his head, but his neck is simply not responding to him. He felt like he is either having a nightmare, or has his consciousness being transferred into a computer.
The earth shook.
Rather, it was the rock hard cold metallic feeling bed that he was lying on top of. No.....it's not a bed, it's an operating table.
The vibrations actually woke him up even more as the sensation of pressure shifts from his back to all the points where his body were anchored and fixed onto the bed and then onto his feet in a sense. He is restrained and propped up manually, now facing Lady Lily.
'What is happening here?' Zel asked in as strong and stable a voice as he can muster, but it came out all wrong.
'We are trying to free you of the artifact, but it seemed to have a will of it's own.' Lady Lily answered, 'if my Pen of Rearrangement couldn't separate you two, then something beyond both me.....Or maybe I need to try harder than last time.'
'Well, maybe only a kind soul can unlock it.' Zel spit out the words and the insults gave him some sense of power.
'Or a strong enough one.' Lady Lily cared not for such childish remarks, 'I will make it work, don't worry.'
Then, she turned and walked into the shadow behind her. With her out of the way, Zel is finally able to look around his environment. He is confined within a glass container and restraint within a laboratory setting, thought the ceilng and walls are like rocks and natural formations. A very rushed attempt at a paint layer was performed to prevent the natural landscape from affecting whatever that's being done in this place, but the formations are still quite visible, albeit looking a bit different.
'Master, are you able to read the make up of this artifact?' Lady Lily made sure the mic module is switched off as she spoke to the figure sitting in the dark, 'I have tried almost everything I could in the past few days, and it's just too risky and complicated..... I don't think I can do it.'
'I can indeed. And it's absolute fascinating.' The figure answered, and it's the same person as before. His face can't be seen in this particular lighting, but funny enough, it cannot be seen in any lighting also, 'his bond and connection with the artifact is on such a fundamental level, just as you correctly pointed out, and the extraction will be quite different from the ones before. This one is more than symbiotic.'
'Is it doable?' Lady Lily asked tentatively and with a slight impatience, 'Will there be some sort of a catastrophic failure if I tampered too much?'
'I do not know, since you have never failed me.' The figure answered truthfully, 'I have put you to such tasks before, you just don't know it yet. The power of the pen is stronger than you realise, and you also are stronger.'
Lady Lily opened her mouth in shock and her hands started shaking. Maybe she is nervous, maybe she is worried. Master has always treated her as someone with immense potential, and she has never failed him.
No, she is excited.
'You have never failed me. Now, go be yourself.' The figure puts out a hand, and gestured for Lady Lily to begin the operation, 'Sir Deva turned out alright, don't you think?'
Lady Lily froze yet again as the hologram message was cut off. She was the one...? So the final test set by her master after she obtained the Pen of Rearrangement and solving all that complicated system algebra function all in the name of a simulation was actually... syncing up Sir Deva with the mass projector?
She looked down at the silver pen and the tips that started glowing as her powers begin to siphon with the artifact.
She CAN do it! She has done it before! All she need to do now is to push a little harder! She just need to get a little stronger. That's what Absolute Being is about, right? There are no limits. There are only hurdles to be cleared.
Whatever it takes.
'Whatever it takes.' Lady Lily whispers the phrase to herself as she turned to face Zel, who seemed terrified at what's about to happen, yet too weak to even scream.
As she probes for the bodily function and the systemic meshing of the human body with the artifacts with her artifact, she started to understand how everything works. She has been going about all this is a wrong way before, keeping Zel unconscious would work for a static system, and operation.
But the artifact reacts to the bodies of the bearers dynamically, and it's only when the bearers are conscious and active that she can clearly see how everything works together.
This is just like how a black box analogy works.
Right as Lady Lily started to make some solid progress regarding the inner workings of the artifact, a glaring message bubble popped up just to her left, and it's colored in red, meaning that an emergency has occurred around the base. Knowing that she might have to restart with the process so far, Lady Lily almost wanted to ignore it, but the default shaking animation of the bubbles has started to become exceedingly distracting.
'What?' Lady Lily glared at the messenger who started panicking after seeing her angry expressions.
'Ma-ma-ma'am! There are some GBI agents approaching and claiming that the whole compound is out of regulations! What do we do?'
'Haven't we got the documents ready?' Lady Lily yelled, 'why are you bring this sort of matter to my attention?'
'But Lady Lily... they knew it was fake. Apparently there was an update in regulations and the one we bought no longer works.'
'Get the lieutenant on the line please and tell them I am grabbing whatever they need.' Putting the pen back in her pocket, Lady Lily stormed out of the lab and leaves Zel to his own devices.
'Sir, please wait a second, our boss is just fetching the thing you need.' The guardsmen standing twenty meters from the main entrance of the compound tried to sound as friendly as possible, but Mindo has dealt with this sort of illegal establishment before.
He has busted drug, weapons and black market fuel deals, but the kind of high-tech weapons deals seemed a bit different. If anything, this place looked more like an illegal lab than a factory from the look of everything. The two rookies are standing right behind him and waiting patiently. Behind them, are both the riot control droids as well as the new war droids even further back just in case it turns on unexpectedly. They all stood in the shut down manner, as Mindo had intended for all this to go. Just another normal day at the office.
'Yes, ma'am?' The guardsmen suddenly picked up another transmission from his comms channel, Mindo couldn't hear what's going on the other side, but the guardsmen looked up at Mindo, and quickly looked back down again, 'seeking confirmation? Understood.'
Mindo felt a little unease boiling inside of him, and reaches his hand towards the blaster on his belt.
'I am sorry, we don't have the right documents...' The guardsmen raised the rifles he is holding, and aimed at Mindo and the three. Immediately before he has time to pull the trigger, Mindo has already grabbed the gun from the holster and wacked the bottom of the guardsmen's rifle so hard that it's knocked off course.
'Pull back!' Mindo dropped a instant hit smoke screen and activated both the personal physical and energy shields almost right after a barrage of fire rained on him. The rookies are a bit slow, but their nervousness actually saved their lives as their switched the shields up immediately.
'Move!' One of them yelled at the other, who is still fiddling with the switch looking all confused and pale.
'Droids! Activate. Protection mode!' Mindo called into the personal interface that linked directly to the droids, and they are immediately turned on and sprinted towards where Mindo and the rookies were at and provide cover fire and help their retreat. As Mindo passes one of the rookies that's a bit slow on the run, she yelled helplessly at him, and the crackling voice sounded like: 'The shields haven't turned on!'
'Get in front....' Before Mindo can finish, an energy shot sliced through the thick smoke and pierced through her shoulder blades. To her credit, the rookie managed to maintain her balance and kept on running, and her comrade picked her up with both hands and sprinted away, protecting her using his shield.
'Good work, kid.' Mindo is now thankful of the decision to take on two of the highest scoring rookies out of the academy, 'Droids! Fall back.'
There were no typical clanky sounds made by the movement of the droids, but Mindo must not turn around here. He needs to get out of the line of fire as they have left the initial smoke screen.
Mindo waved for the two to run towards the nearest cover as he vaulted over a rock and brought out a mini-drone to see where the fire is coming from. There are more guardsmen now stationed in multiple areas within the entrance of the compound as well as some that comes out of hidden exits from the hills. There are about one hundred guns that's pointing at the general direction of them.
'A job perfect for the droids.' Mindo clicked his teeth and pulled up the screen to check the status of his droids, only to realise that they are all off-line or immobile.
Somehow, all the riot control droids are taken out in an instant. The highly durable, bullet and blaster proof riot control droids that fought battles against mindless zombie-like beings in the space force are all taken out, before the smoke even clears.
Mindo couldn't even tell what has happened to them.The firing has stopped as the smoke as cleared, and a ball of metal laid bare in the sand. It was made out of the riot control droids as the lights coming off it still shines in multiple places and the warning siren also comes off a few of them that still have the speakers intact.
'Truly impressive.' An Aquarian standing next to Lady Lily complimented as they both watch on from the control room, 'so that's Sir Deva's power?'
'A miniture version of it, yes.' Lady Lily pointed to one of the soldier equipped with an almost astronaut's space-walking looking like equipment around his body, 'that is what we have been able to replicate out of Sir Deva's artifact, but the one you will be getting will be different.'
'This is still really impressive.' The young Aquarian couldn't hide the excitement as he leaned forward and put four of his arms on the edge of the table, 'what exactly does it do?'
'So far, we have made ten of these mini-mass projectors. They can recreate whatever Sir Deva's artifact can do and project a ball of mass at a designated location. It's insanely energy exhaustive and have a rather substantial cool down time, but if we have all of them firing in sequence, then it should cover that weakness quite nicely.'
'And this is just the very first stage....Incredible.' The Aquarian shivered in excitement and turned around, revealing six sharpened golden Aquarian blades on his back, 'May I ask if Sir Deva is here? I haven't seen him since the academy days...'
'No, he has gone off doing another mission for the master. Another artifact is supposedly located in the middle regions, and he is investigating.'
'Shame...' The Aquarian pulled out one of the blades and swung it around in a spiral and sliding it back into the hilt without making a sound, 'I am getting a bit bored here. Can I go out for some action?'
'Not there, and not now. You are too valuable of an asset.' Lady Lily shook her head, 'plus, I wanted to see how the mass-projectors do in combat. There is something else I want you to deal with though, on a slightly different note.'
Lady Lily pulled out a short video filmed right outside the compound through a hidden camera. It showed Rydel and Cellica flipping over into the train and riding into the base, 'If I am not mistaken, there are someone intruding into the base. I have a feeling they are acting in accordance with the GBI agents, but it doesn't really matter. Deal with them.'
'Awesome~~' The Aquarian celebrated by throwing his arms in the air and spinning around the room.
'Just one thing, Gold.' Lady Lily warned him as he exits the room, 'be aware that I have called for a base-wide retreat once all the valuables are moved in, so don't be late.'
'Jesus!' Ol and Dolon has been watching everything closely in their cloaked ship as things go down. Luckily, all three seemed to have moved out alright and went into cover.
'Mindo! Are you okay?' Ol called into the communications channel, and made him almost jumpped up and out of the cover.
'Who the hell is this?'
'I am Ol, and a friend of Cellica's. I know what your stance in this is, but do you want some assistance?'
'No! Don't interrupt or you will be reported too!' Mindo warned Ol, 'I hate the paperwork, and I also want to see how the war droids do...War Droids, activate combat mode. Apprehend hostiles!'
'Well....looked like it's time for me to show up?' Dolon is already fully dressed in her combat attire by the time Ol has turned around. It's quite incredible how her outfit in real life is exactly the same as that in the War Game, just a shade darker. The colour doesn't really matter in this age though as most gears have camouflaging paint covered all over, and Dolon's is no different.
'Not now, but I feel like they will need our help soon.' Ol puts one arm out and stops Dolon, 'let's see what they can do for now. I hate paperwork too.'
In Mindo's defense, the chance of someone building a whole manufacturing compound or laboratory in the outskirts of the settled regions of the Galaxy is exceedingly low and the amount of effort and resources required is really something out of the ordinary. However, he wasn't really expecting this sort of resistance and even fighting at all.
'War Droids, take them down.' It seems like there is no better time to try these bad boys out, with zero civilians, zero facilities and all the time in the universe, Mindo can really let the droids loose and see what they can actually do. However, despite his curiosities, he will need some help, which is why he activated a distress beacon for the other GBI forces nearby at the same time.
The tiny beacon disguised as one of the buttons on his jacket flashed a few times, then stopped. This means that his signals has been received, and help should be on the way as soon as possible.
But before they get here, Mindo will have to sort himself and the two rookie teammates out.
'Are you two okay?' Mindo asked over the communications channel.
'Yes Sir, just patching her up, what should we do?' The uninjured agent answered as he finished the quick treatment on his colleague as well as reconfiguring her shields which was set up wrongly, causing it not to activate in times of dire need. Classic rookie mistake there.
'We will use the War Droids as distraction, and get out of here.' Mindo answered as he looked over to see those monsters starting to turn on and immediately starting to identify all the hostiles firing at their direction. The black painted droids quickly turned inside out and have both shields and physical armor plates ready before pulling out multiple guns and started pointing at the forces from Absolute Being.
'Stop firing, or risk consequences!' The automatic message is played out loud and clear.
Somehow, it worked, and all of them stopped firing and quite a few closest to them even put their guns away, albeit very hesitantly.
'Ha! Those dumb machines work exactly as I thought!' Lady Lily laughed out loud as her orders to stopped all hostilities right as the war droids are activated. She put her the pen of rearrangement back in her pocket and stood up from her chair. Immediately after the war droids are revealed to be completely different from the riot control droids, Lady Lily has activated her artifact and begin studying carefully how the war droids really work deep down, and despite it's name, it is not allowed to fire at anyone who is not engaging the act of violence.
There is a block within the coding of the War Droid's operating system preventing any further action, and that's exactly what she used.
'No guns, just the scientific instruments.' Lady Lily ordered, and the one soldier equipped with the mini-mass projector stepped forward, and pointed the screen projector like device at the War Droids.
A sphere formed in mid air in multiple locations between the War Droids in formation and started sucking up the surrounding droids and ground materials instantaneously. The droids immediately recognized this as a hostile response, but by the time they opened fire, they have already been bunched up and made into three giant metal meatballs. Then they were slammed into the ground.
'What is going on? Why isn't the droids doing anything?' Mindo frantically pressed the buttons and looks in despair as the useless droids got taken out. He opened the operating sequences, only to find a limiter placed on the War Droids by the bureu itself, and no attacking non-hostile enemies is one of the fundamental rules. Since there is no guns, there will be no response.
'War droids my ass.' Mindo spitted into the dirt. and he felt a cold hard tube pinned against the back of his head, 'shit, my wife is gonna kill me for this...'
All three human GBI agents were quickly rounded up by the forces of Absolute Being, who stood in a circle and surrounded them awaiting for the orders.
'Lady Lily, what should our next step be?' The one handling the miniature version of the mass projector made it extra sure that all the components of the project is fine, or at least inactive before reporting directly to her, 'The projector works fine, but the induction coil and amplifiers are on the verge of burning off now. The energy level going through the system is fairly high too.'
'Noted and relay those feedback to the workshop, as for our visitors, just get rid of them as you see fit.' Lady Lily replied coldly. And the one in charge turned to look at MIndo and seemed to have disagreed with Lady Lily's choice.
'With all due respect, ma'am, I don't think performing such a deed is the best idea forward.' He said, 'killing others is not going to make us a more superior individual, Absolute Beings only fight to better ourselves and defend our goals.'
'Don't go all preachy on me.' Lady Lily yelled, 'who the hell are you?'
'I am Dan, and a recent academy graduate chosen to handle to very first pseudo-artifact.' Dan responded firmly, then he ordered the rest of the soldiers to stand down.
'Right, Dan. It seems like you have chosen the more annoying side here.' Lady Lily lets out a sigh, then overwrote his communications module and directly spoke with everyone else, 'This is Lady Lily. Dispose of the agent as well as Dan.'
The rest didn't hesitate as much as Dan did, and raised their weapons.
'Sir, I guess...it was an honour..'
'No kid, not yet.' Mindo stopped the rookie from saying the word, 'But at least your families will get a good sum of money now...'
The fingers are now on the trigger.
'You might want to rethink that decision, gentlemen.' Someone spoke out from the side, and all the soldiers turned around, only to see Dolon dressed in full combat gear and standing casually on top of the rock that Mindo was hiding behind, 'I would let them go, if I were you. You don't want to fight me.'