Author’s Note: Wow, intraweb still broken. I better have it back before Christmas or I’ll be one sad sad RingWraith…

Chapter 40: Against the World

Date: November 22, 3007
Time: 03:40
Location: SS Isis, Sea of El Nath

The klaxon alarm started to scream its last dying symphony onto the metal decks of the great warship. As the snow and wind continued to lash out against the steel plating, the muffled droning of a dropship disappeared into the night, disappearing into the low-hung clouds of darkness. The Isis was alone now, abandoned like a used car, forgotten like a lost toy. It was cold as a walk-in fridge on the outside, but things were getting hot inside the hull of the great ship.

Caleio slammed her fist into the metal plating that had encased them inside their little prison. The power servos in her combat suit made a tiny dent where her punch landed. Swearing in frustration, she turned back to the platoon. Staring each of them in the eyes, she studied them carefully. They were afraid, but for different purposes. Her eyes caught Felix’s and for that brief second of connection, she saw an unusual glint, as if he just had a mental revelation.

But just when she was about to say something, Felix started up, reaching into his breast pocket at the same time. Caleio’s mind gave a terrible jolt, for she remembered all members of the Nexon Dominion were issued grenades, which were kept in the breast pocket. However, before she could dive forwards, Caleio realized that Felix had just slammed the black sphere onto the table. And in that moment, she understood.

The amorphous shapes and shadows inside of the black sphere danced around in its own unknown fire. Everything silenced itself, even the klaxon alarm seemed to distance itself from the platoon and fade away, leaving them in perfect tranquility. Caleio felt herself being drawn closer to the anomaly on the table. There was an eerie presence about it that seemed to suck the life out of the room.

But in that silence, that peace and quiet, Caleio felt a sudden jolt, as if the ship had just listed to the side unexpectedly. The klaxon suddenly became blaringly loud again, and the mysterious aura was swept from the room. Felix was smiling.

“They’re here…”

Another jolt rocked the ship, breaking the ice surrounding the hull only for it to freeze an instant later. And then she heard it: it was breathtaking and horrifying, yet she could not be happier. The mixed up cacophony of howls of lurking Hectors, Pangs, and Lycanthropes approached, crescendoing in the night air, reverberating off of the ship’s corridors.

Without warning, something slammed into the metal door, denting it inwards, sending Niel, who was sitting next to it, jumping up and cursing loudly. One last magazine was left, fifty bullets between her life and death. Caleio checked her actions and slammed the last clip home, feeling a sense of completeness come over her with the click of her ready rifle.

Another dent appeared in the door; Caleio could hear snarls on the direct opposite side of the metal now. The screech of nails on steel pierced the air like a missile. Cringing, she pointed her muzzle straight at the doorway, turning on her flashlight mounted beneath the barrel. Right on cue, the lights of the ship extinguished themselves; only the pulsing red lights on the ceiling lit the room, accompanied by the klaxon alarm. Another dent, then another.

And then, the hinges finally broke away, and the metal slab flew open, banging onto the ground with a deafening thud. The silhouette of a lone wolf stood between the platoon and the night air. Immediately, Caleio squeezed her trigger, planting a lead bullet directly into the animalistic brain of the Hector. Before the body even fell, she sprang out of their prison, dashing towards the railing of the ship. A mechanical voice rebounded off of the ship’s narrow walkways, but Caleio could not interpret what it had said.

Cursing at the twisted architecture of the flag ship, Caleio turned the corner to come face to face with a pack of Pangs. She quickly skidded to a stop and took aim. But before she could pick a clean shot, a body slammed into her back, sending her sprawling to the floor. Whipping around instinctively, she shoved the barrel of her gun into the neck of Felix who had accidentally crashed into her when she had stopped altogether.

“Hey! Watch where you point that damned thing!” Felix shouted, roughly shoving her gun away. Muttering a quick apology, she scrambled up and fired five shots into the wolf pack, quickly dispatching each wolf.

The platoon rushed forwards down the narrow corridors with Felix now in the lead. Caleio jogged right behind, checking every hall they passed, making sure the wolves would not ambush them.

As they turned the corner, Caleio suddenly felt a blast of cold wintry air. Feeling a bit closer to heaven, she gathered up the last of her strength and dashed out of the insides of the ship onto the main deck. Suddenly, the mechanical voice boomed into her ear, “One minute to Self-Destruct.”

“F***! We have to jump, men!” Felix screamed over the raging blizzard. Though Caleio could not see, she felt wolves close in on them from all sides. Deciding the fall from the ship would be the least likely cause of death, she sprinted forwards and jumped off of the railing.

It seemed like an hour before Caleio hit the ground, but when she did, all she could see was white all around. No sign of the ship, no sign of her friends, no nothing. But behind her, a faint voice floated through the frozen air, piercing her thoughts with a horrifying “10 seconds”.

Caleio ran for it. The wind and ice tore at her face, making it feel like negative a billion degrees as she flew through the frozen sea. In her mind, she counted down the remaining seconds until their flagship would explode into fiery shrapnel and twisted metal. Her mind snapped to one, and Caleio closed her eyes.

Though she couldn’t see it, Caleio felt a terrible and intense blast of heat throw her forwards a good ten feet. Some sort of shockwave screamed out from the ship, cracking and melting snow all around it. The explosion rocked the boat apart from the inside, undoing all of the rivets and bolts tying the ship together. A fireball ten times the size of the Isis itself consumed the clouds, flash-evaporating the snow surrounding it into the air. It curved upwards gracefully like a hand reaching out into heavens, trying desperately to grab hold of the holy and angelic before it dissipated back into the night world.

Caleio uncovered her head and looked up with her eyes. The snow in front of her was covered in heaps of burning wreckage. Broken and flaming pieces of the ship were littered all around her. Staggering up, she brushed some ash off of her wrist map and checked for any bio-signs around her. Sighing in relief, she counted six red dots still pulsing brightly upon the little rectangle of green.

“Captain, captain where are you?” Caleio called out on her communicator as she walked through the burning twisted metal. She waited for a few seconds, but no response came. “Captain, I repeat, where are you?” Through the sea of crackling static, she thought she heard Felix’s commanding voice, but could not comprehend anything.

Swearing under her breath, she took a look at her compass and headed in the direction of the remaining dots. And then, they appeared, through the blackness like a beacon of hope. But they seemed to be gathered around something.

Caleio made the last few strides and found herself next to Felix who was bent over examining something in his hand. Looking over his broad shoulders, Caleio caught a glimpse of the black sphere, it’s innards glowing a bright red, as if irritated or annoyed.

“This thing is like a wolf-call,” Felix mumbled to no one in particular, “Whenever I hold it out, every species of wolf is drawn to attack its position as if it was a self-defense mechanism.”

“Where do you suppose it came from?” Zanna asked suspiciously, still eyeing the black ball with uncertainty.

“I still think it came down in the lightening,” Annikabelle replied, looking hopefully in the direction of the mountains, but the blizzard had everything so blocked from view she couldn’t even see her own outstretched fingertips.

“Wherever it came from, It’s sh** news for us. I can only…” But Felix suddenly stopped, his eyes bulging in shock and horror.

“What?” Caleio asked uncertainly. She studied her captain’s frozen expression. He seemed to be in deep thought, or really frozen by the extreme temperatures.

“The Zombies. Fenris gave them the weapons. They were sent to destroy us. This was all a trick. The Dominion really do want us dead,” Felix spurted out, still staring blankly out into the snow in front of him. He turned to Caleio, “Cal, isn’t The Academy in low orbit over this region of the planet?”

Caleio thought for a moment, and then it hit her. The lightning and the black sphere came from The Academy where they trained all of the Shadows. She nodded gravely, her heart dropping. If this was really a ploy to kill them all, the entire Dominion was involved, and if the entire Dominion was involved, then that meant the entire government was involved, and if that was true, then the whole entire world was against them.

The platoon stood in silence, not knowing what to think. Not so long ago, they were still sitting in the warm conference room, being briefed to go on this retrieval mission. Now the object had been retrieved, but there was no one to bring it back to. Home, in all shape and form, had been destroyed.

Caleio looked at her weapons monitor. She had less than half a clip left. In the distance, the voices of thousands of wolves already started to culminate again, each addition more unsettling than the last.

“Come on, we gotta get outta here,” Felix muttered as he roughly brushed past Caleio. She took in a deep breath of the frozen air, feeling her lungs strain at the sudden influx, and followed her captain into the snow.