“Some call the other races barbaric; others insist they’re advanced. From what I’ve been able to gather after years of journalism is that other species are simply different. The hard Right in the Senate call for a never-ending war, but not a single one will join the fight. I say we go another direction altogether. We should form a galactic coalition of races that works together for a common good.” – From: At this hour with Dianna Robertson.

  From her place at the back of the formation, Thea watched with suspicion as the middle-aged woman stumbled along. While she had sympathy in spades, she also knew there was no reason for Evee to still be in pain. She’d healed every wound the woman had, plus some. Was the tender way she walked an act to hide something more nefarious, or was it the result of mental trauma?

  “So, Evee, do you have any clue how long they held you?” Thea asked, picking up her pace to walk alongside the woman.

  “I-I’m not sure. A few days at most? They took me on Monday if that helps.”

  It didn’t. Today was Tuesday, and the state of her wounds suggested the torture had gone on for much longer than a single day. However, loss of time recognition was common with prisoners, so the idea that she truly didn’t know was plausible.

  “Yeah? You hid from the Raak for quite some time. That’s good.”

  “Raak? What is that?”

  “Big, scary gray things, about three meters tall, kinda looks like a rhino on two legs. Completely taken over this planet… you’re not following.” Thea realized when Evee’s clueless expression got deeper.

  “You mean the man’s bodyguards?”

  She almost laughed, but caught herself before she made light of Evelyn’s pain. “If that creature is what we think it is, it didn’t need a bodyguard. Not even one as formidable as a Raak’Shee.”

  Evelyn shook her head as she tried to reconcile the events of recent history, “I remember the sirens going off, and the police telling everyone to stand their ground. I just… grabbed my knife and walked out in my apron. Some people tried to fight them, but they were mowing through us like seniors at an early bird special. The ones they didn’t kill, they took…”

  If her story was true, it meant the AHF contingent was much less prepared on this planet than they’d feared. Someone was going to get demoted when Command found out… if they were still alive.

  “You were at home?”

  “No, work. I am a chef downtown. I tried to leave…” she said, her voice trailing off into a jumbled mess of memory.

  If what this woman said was true, she’d been in enemy hands for over a month. With the torture she went through, it was very possible that she’d turned.

  Thea would have to watch her.

  She hated it came to this, but it was better to be safe than sorry. And when you’re dealing with a torture victim, it was always best to assume they’d cracked under pressure.

  “I’m just glad we found you and we can bring you home,” Thea said, simultaneously sending a quick text message to the group outlining her fears.

  “I think anything is better than being back there…”

  The group walked in silence while discussing Thea’s worries via text.

  “I’m sorry Thea, but I can’t see this woman being some kind of spy,” Dave sent, his heavy boots echoing off the walls as they descended the stairwell.

  “I’m not saying that she is. But her story seems off, and we need to be careful.”

  “Yeah, but what would be the point of hurting a spy that much?” Jenkins asked.

  “To garner sympathy. The worse we feel for her, the less we look at her behavior.”

  “I could see that, but it still doesn’t make me happy.” Alec said, mirroring everyone’s feelings with one statement.

  “It doesn’t make us happy either, bud, but it don’t mean we have the option of just ignoring it,” Dave replied, finally seeing it from Thea’s point of view.

  “Everyone, just be cautious. I would love to laugh about this later, but for now… well, a healthy dose of paranoia never hurt anyone.” Thea concluded.

  If the map was accurate, they would find their final objective at the bottom of this stairwell. If they were lucky, there would be a series of experimental devices and a cache of serum hidden inside the secondary control room.

  Luckily, scorch marks outside the vault suggested the enemy had failed to gain entrance to this most secure location, but not for lack of trying.

  On the wall beside the vault door, someone had smashed the hand scanner to bits, enraged at being denied entrance. The input device was hanging by a single wire and shards of glass were scattered beneath. A screen set in the wall was the only part that mostly survived, but even it was cracked and hard to see.

  “Tom, Alec, can either of you unlock this door?” Dave asked, addressing the two tech-based soldiers while stepping back and forming a half-dome around them, just in case.

  “We’d better be able to,” Alec replied, stepping up and placing a gauntleted hand on the door.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  A pulse of orange Light shot down the Dragoon’s arm and into the mechanism. A second later, the interface used to control the locks was part of him. Normally, opening a door was child’s play, but this was not a normal door.

  “Jenkins, I have the hardware, but they designed this thing to fight off people like us. Can you to jump into the computer and release the lock?”

  “On it,” indigo Light flashed along the back of his neck as the Possessor cast his mind into what little remained of the computer, “You’re right, they designed this thing so that if the interface got broken, it would take at least two Li-Tech users of different Corps to get it open. In fact, there is a provision here that requires the use of two spectrums for manual override. Go ahead and try the mechanism. I’ve got the actual lock disengaged.”

  Thea could only watch as the two men worked. As much as she wanted to be useful, her power made it so that she was damned near useless with machines.

  The glow in Alec’s arm intensified as he located seven different bolts and retracted them one at a time. It was a slow process, but eventually, he opened them all. With that out of the way, both men dropped their connections.

  Alec stumbled back from the door breathing heavily, the Light expenditure needed to open the vault draining him more than he was comfortable with. Especially in a hostile zone.

  Dave pulled, and the door swung out silently to reveal a massive warehouse that went far beyond their expectations. Fog poured out, the negative temperature of the vault creeping into the hallway now that it was open.

  It was like they were about to step into a place frozen in time, just waiting to give up the secrets of a bygone era.

  “I don’t want to go in there. Please don’t make me. I’ll freeze and they’ll find me … I can’t live through that again,” Evelyn panicked.

  “Don’t worry,” Thea replied, raising her faceplate to talk with the woman, “Specialist Jenkins and I will stay right here with you while the boys finish the mission.”

  ~~**~~

  Alec and Dave strode through countless aisles of experimental equipment with one thing in mind: completing the objective. The pair had been through the worst life could throw at them, so they figured it was only fitting to spend most of their missions together.

  That’s not to say they considered themselves a private duo with nobody else to rely on. It meant their family had grown to include people they didn’t expect. Hell, a little over two years ago, Dave was sleeping on Alec’s couch after a hard day’s work, trying his damnedest to get his house back.

  He wanted to hate the government for that, but this wasn’t the time nor the place for a pity party about losing his home. Besides, he should thank them. If not for the corrupt politics on Earth, neither man would have joined the AHF and gotten to see what the universe was really like.

  So far, he’d discovered that it was fighting, or drinking, or both. And he could deal with that.

  Each item they passed was labeled, numbered, and cataloged in a directory at the front of each aisle. Beside them were small-—but lengthy—explanations about what each one was and why experimentation stopped. Some were amusing, like the Light-powered hair dryer that should have dried hair in five seconds, but instead produced a heat so great, it instantly burned the hair off.

  Others were much, much worse. So far, they’d seen several projects simply labeled World Killer no less than a dozen times. Alec repeatedly attempted to gather more information, but the warehouse AI repeatedly kicked him out of the interface for trying.

  “What do you think this one does?” Alec asked, picking up yet another of the items labeled World Killer.

  “Based on the fact that it’s called a world killer, I assume it kills a world.”

  “Nah, it’s probably not finished. They got to a point where they couldn’t make it work and just put it on the shelf,” he said, putting the cylinder back. Seconds later, he picked up a ball-shaped one labeled [Li-Tech Bio Grenade – Dragoon only] and started tossing it into the air.

  “Cut that shit out before you get us both killed,” Dave scolded. “You know this ain’t the place to screw around with this stuff… right? If we stay in here too long, our beers are liable to freeze.”

  “Oh damn, you’re right. I forgot about the beer.”

  Alec stopped tossing the bioweapon and slipped it into a compartment at his waist, fully intending to return it on their way out. Glancing to the side, he found that he’d lost his best friend a few meters back.

  “Didn’t you just tell me off for playing with the shiny new toys? What the hell are you doing?”

  Dave responded by simply pointing at a device that laid harmlessly on the shelf, its label announcing it as [Experiment F-43918.] Below the name, the object's description quickly clarified why Dave was tempted to take it.

  [Experiment F-43918, {Codename – Achilles}: I designed this module as an addition to the standard Aegis load out. Its more compressed design allows for a stronger, more efficient barrier with half the cost. Unfortunately, there were several issues in the design from the early stages. First, it was not capable of projecting a field more than six inches from the user’s body without losing cohesion, making it wonderful for the user, but not the squad he or she is protecting. Second, and more importantly, it requires a much more dense flow of Light than average. The only method most soldiers can use to approach that target output is by using Experiment T-80081. Sadly, most soldiers aren’t willing to become test subjects to accomplish this goal.]

  Project viability – high.

  Officer FB

  “Holy shit,” Alec exclaimed, reaching for the armor module. “You’ve gotta take this. It even says it would probably work!”

  “Yes, but only with whatever Experiment T-80081 is. How do we even find that?” He replied, giving in to the temptation and attaching it to his armor. When it integrated, the lines of power on the exoskeleton deepened to a darker blue for a single moment before returning to their previous shade.

  “Ask your AI?”

  “I’m sure we can take this stuff, right? I mean… that creepy recording Jack found said we could use whatever we found,” the Aegis said, walking along the line his AI had plotted to find the other experiment.

  “I see nothing wrong with your logic. After all, we have to stay alive too.”

  A few moments later, the pair found yet another armor module. As before, a label explained its purpose and viability:

  [Experiment T-80081, {Codename – Venom}: This module houses what could be the greatest boon and the greatest threat to mankind in the history of our race. ‘Venom’ can increase a human’s capacity for Light absorption and redistribution by 75%. Users of 'Venom' have done remarkable things, surpassing what was previously achievable by only an Unranked Officer. The effect only lasts about two hours before breaking down, but when used as a last resort, it could be the difference between life and death.

  However, it is incredibly addictive. Most have experienced extreme withdrawals rivaling those of heroin with detox symptoms lasting nearly a month. I believe that with further testing I can remove the addictive nature, but there is a not-insignificant part mentally driven by a carnal lust for power.]

  Overall, the viability of ‘Venom’ is very high, provided I can break this last barrier and make it safe for use.

  Officer TK

  “So maybe it has a few drawbacks,” Alec said after reading the plaque, “Screw that… a lot of drawbacks. You can still probably take it and see what the eggheads up top can figure out.”

  “I don’t want to depend on this thing. Yeah, a bump in power would be nice, but at what cost?” Dave said, shaking his head and walking away, “It ain’t worth it. I’ll find another way to get strong enough for this shield.”

  “I honestly can’t blame you. I think we are almost there.”