The Unavoidable
002, having aqcuired a copy of the map, moved to his veichle and entered the podlike space of the TMV and proceeded to enter a sleeplike state to quicken the healing process of his slightly damaged neural cortex, as he slowly loses consciousness he thinks of the story the Locken narrated to him. "Fire the force canons, don't allow them to safely leave the atmosphere", a commanding voice shouts with a passionate and furious tone, "if we allow them to leave, the princess will not be able to escape" he added. The owner of the voice, who is shown to be a tall and muscular man, turns around and looks at the display on the screen, and without looking at who he was speaking with, inquires "how are the thrusters, can't we take off?" another voice with a calmer and emotionless tone answers, "the ship's thrusters are beyond repair, and the fighters are insufficient to breach the forcefield, I suggest we use the energy core at 100% output to destroy them before they enter light speed", the room was momentary silent with all eyes on the Admiral in command, using the energy core at 100% meant self destructing the ship, the explosion was potent enough to permanently damage the ecosystem of the planet, much less those on board the ship. As if to urge the Admiral's decision, a timer that indicates the amount of time left until the enemy ship would enter lightspeed appears on display, intensifying the pressure. "what will it be sir? " the voice asked.
Stranger's Call
"Wake up, wake up, the sun is up and we need to get on the move", 002 is woken up by the SAI's urging, he opens his eyes in confusion turning his head from side to side to survey his sorroundings, seeing he was still in his TMV he understands that he was having a dream. "Do not be alarmed, it was only a dream", the SAI assured, but 002 was no fool, "a transendent of my level shouldn't be able to dream even if most of my neural capacity was sealed, clarify the occurrence", 002 firmly demands. The SAI aware of his failed attempt to hide the truth of the matter, responds" indeed it wasn't a dream, it was a sort of psychic invasion, it escaped my vigilance and I only detected it this morning". The SAI goes on to say " as long as you are not harmed by the invasion, it is best we ignore it for the time being as I am not well equipped to defend against it".002 is no stranger to psychic attacks because of his days in the Shark Womb Operation(SOW), he knew that wasn't an attack but a call, a way of psychic contacting. "Have you drawn out our route", 002 asked the SAI, "yes, it will appear on your helmets display now", the SAI assured. 002 sets off once again to get to the heart of Locke as soon as possible, 002 knew that 001 was aware of the fact he was being hunted, the more time passed the further away 001 will get. 002 was 60 days away from the heart of Locke even if he travelled through the night, Cassen was twice the size of the old home(Earth), but Locke was 1.5 times bigger than Cassen.
Who Are You?
002 travelled for 15 day and in that 15 day he encountered many dangers, he encountered the Earth Wyrms the locken warned about, he also encountered small warlock groups, but on his 15th day he came across the Valley of pillars on his enroute to the heart of Locke, the Valley of pillars, although called a valley was more like a great canyon, in which stood tall and sturdy looking pillars of stone carved out by the constant winds that traversed the valley, they were white dispite their iron content, some were so corroded to the point of crambling, though a beautiful site, it ensured the scorching of the lands that were touched by the winds that passed it, truly a dangerous beauty. "This is the Valley of pillars! ", 002 said, squinting his eyes to minimise the amount of light that hit his eyes, at this remark the SAI retorts"Valley of pillars? More like the valley of light", 002 didn't give a reaction noting to his apparent absence of humour, turning serious the SAI informs "the valley's terrain is very unstable, if we go around it, it will take another 10 days", "and if we go through it?", 002 asked while survey the valley with his tactical goggles, the SAI answers"3 hours". 002 naturally decides to go through, but half an hour into the journey, the path begins to cave in, the valley since it's formation had never been traversed and showed no clear signs of fragility, the SAI exclaimed in shock, and warned 002 to avoid certain paths in an effort to leave the valley safely, but they were caught up in the collapse. 002 fell from a considerable height but sustained no injuries and even manage to stay conscious, but upon calling the SAI, 002 found it to be unresponsive, 002 was now on his own, he scans his sorroundings and finds out that he had fallen into a mazelike structure , he immediately sends out scout drones to find the exit, he had no time to waste. After hours of waiting for feedback he receives no response, he decides to choose a path and go along it, but his TMV wouldn't start, in fact it seemed that all his devices were unresponsive. 002 thought it strange as the drones from earlier were able to start, 002 could only walk the rest of the way dragging his TMV along, as he entered the path he had chosen, a figure clad in white materialised in the distance "who are you and what are your intentions" 002 inquired, as he points his force gun in the direction.