Each person
was made out of little sphere’s of light, like the resolution of a
hologram. But nothing shone as brightly as the angels. They were so
bright that it half blinded me. Indeed the contrast between our
surroundings and themselves was so striking that it was almost
impossible not to focus upon them. I looked towards its hand which
was pouring light from the environment and into me. The world
looked like a sea of colour. I could see the energy of the vessel
pulsing like so many rainbows. All of this was superimposed upon my
standard vision of the world, which seemed dull and lifeless by
comparison.
As I was
drinking in the bounty the angels were offering I saw the infirmary
doors open. The infected guardsman grinned. Within him, there was
no light, only a trickle of darkness. He raised his rifle. The
muzzle opened up a stream of hot lead towards me. But in an instant
it slowed almost to a stop. I held out my hand and focused upon the
bullets. Then something happened which I cannot explain. The
bullets dissolved into nothing. I held out my hand to the guardsmen
and suddenly a huge pulse of light leapt from it. In a moment he
was shrouded in a heavenly glow. He was drawn apart by an Elysium
fire. The fire exploded and the guardsman was no more.
The angel
removed its hand. The world slowly washed back into its original
state. Blood from the guardsman soaked the walls. In the explosion
of energy that had just occurred, several screens appeared to have
been damaged. What I realised now is just how the angels worked. I
had not connected by myself to this source of energy but had done
so through them. That single angel had the capability of wielding
more power than I could ever imagine. At the same time I realised
why I was so important. Unlike the others who had lived and died
upon Ascension I was able to connect without the help of the
Equinox subjects. It dawned upon me that perhaps the solution to
the removal of the artefacts was through this energy, through this
god-like might. The question that I could not answer was why the
angels had not removed it themselves.
In the same
moment I noticed that my wound had healed. My chest no longer hurt
and under the inspection of my fingers, I discovered no trace of a
wound. The angels appeared restless; it was high time we moved
along. This time I decided not to be a hero and instead resolved to
attempt the rescue with a little more caution.
‘Perhaps you
would like to hear the preferred route,’ Blue Dawn stated dryly. It
was incredible how her voice could contain such rhythmical
composure and yet at the same time invoke irony and sarcasm.
‘Go ahead,’ I
muttered.
‘The CIC is
one floor down. We are presently at the stern of the vessel and so
we are in a prime location. If we take the engineering service
hatch for the power-core down to that level, we should emerge ahead
of the danger of the reactor and behind the free-fire-zone.’
‘Sounds like a
plan, but where is this service hatch?’
‘It is
directly opposite this room. The service hatch allows access to a
coolant pipe for the reactor. The pipe’s temperature is regulated
by running it along the hull of the vessel and so absorbing the
cold of space. The average temperature in this section is minus one
hundred degrees. This is considerably warmer than the temperature
higher up. As we descend the temperature will rise to close to one
hundred. It is with this knowledge that I suggest that you do not
spend too long in the coolant system. Your suit should offer you
protection for a period of no longer than half an hour. But don’t
risk it for too long.’ With that she took another small ball from
her pocket.
She let it go
and it hovered to the infirmary door, which opened to allow its
exit. ‘All clear,’ she stated. The ball must have contained some
sort of imaging system for her to know this.
She held out
her hand for the ball of light. It shut off its light and dropped
into her palm. Without a seconds hesitation she walked right
outside, with one angel following her. I smiled at my angel in
thanks, but it appeared not to notice. Feeling a little
disconcerted by the power of her eyes burrowing into me I hurried
to catch up with Blue Dawn.
I emerged into
the silence of the once bustling science laboratory. As far as I
could remember this place had once been a centre of activity. Now
however it lay silent. Small dark holes peppered everything. The
glass walls that had once provided a window into the mysteries of
science, were now so cracked that little was visible. What could
just about be glimpsed through the unmarked surfaces of the glass
was hardly encouraging. Vials were smashed, machines were damaged
beyond repair, corpses lay motionless upon the floor, or hunched
over their machines. The most tragic view that could be seen was a
woman with her arms about a gene sequencer. She had died trying to
protect this machine and had failed in her task. The machine was
clearly damaged and it did not appear to be serviceable. I wondered
what had been the point, wasting life for a smashed glass.
We crossed the
small expanse that seemed to continue into eternity and arrived at
the service hatch. A printed sign on the side of the hatch stated,
danger, reactor coolant, authorised personnel only
. With an
unlikely amount of strength Blue Dawn yanked upon the hatch and
ripped it from the wall. The sound of fracturing metal crept
throughout the halls.
I climbed in
before her. An angel moved in to follow. The tube was freezing. It
was very, very cold. A warning light on my suit blinked. I kept
crawling forwards.
About a yard
ahead of me was a sudden bend. I held out my hand and dropped it.
In the symmetrical environment of the tube it was easy to forget
which way was down. The way was clearly below us. I didn’t really
want to go down a narrow tube, but I figured that there was no
choice. There was however no turning back. So I grabbed hold of the
side I lowered myself down.
My feet would
not hit the ground. In fact the ground seemed to be a long way
away. In panic I flailed my feet about. They found nothing. My
hands were beginning to tire. I tried again. The change in motion
upset my grip upon the growing slipperiness of the tube and I began
to fall.
I kept picking
up speed. Travelling faster and faster I felt the air begin to
whoosh about my ears, growing to a deafening whine.
I felt a
colossal pull underneath my shoulders and found to my surprise
those shining hands lifting me up. We landed gently upon the floor.
My shoes made a slight clang, but the angel’s made none. Knowing
Blue Dawn would soon be following I began to crawl at full speed
towards the light of the access hatch. The temperature was rising
now, I could feel it. With a mind not to be crushed by the descent
of Blue Dawn I decided to think little on it.
Hurling my
hand against the service hatch it opened to give way. I rolled,
head-first, onto the floor of the stern of the middle floor.
Standing quickly I realised to my horror that we had ended up on
entirely the wrong part of the vessel. I must have gone the wrong
way after my descent because I realised that even though we were
still before the CIC we were actually ahead of Aeniah and the
others. Coming up upon a large group of infected with minimal
protection was not a good idea. My angel, realising perhaps just at
that moment our mistake, moved very close to me to protect me. I
knew in my mind that we had little recourse but to continue.
Blue Dawn
dropped from the hatch behind me. Through my peripheral vision I
saw her shake her head. I turned to face her head on. Her finger
flashed out in the direction of the CIC and I obliged by walking in
that direction. With my lancer pressed firmly to my shoulder I
strode confidently, comfortable in the power of the device.
Two figures
with fully automatics rounded the bend to my right. My angels
exploded to my right, covering my position. They calmly absorbed
the weapons fire as I span the lancer in their direction. Looking
through the screen I saw that these two figures were in a far worse
state than the others had been in. Their faces were badly
lacerated. Their hands were bloody. They seemed excited by the
violence of the event and their eyes took on a hungry look.
I fired twice.
The lancer compensated for my aim which I was acutely aware was off
target. The two infected were blown several feet backwards. The one
with a curious wound to his head stepped back up. I took aim and
fired again as he ambled towards me. He was again thrown backwards,
with even more of his torso damaged. Yet he still rose. His
internal organs hanging from him, throwing blood furiously along
the floor. Torrents of crimson rain rushed from him, but still he
came.
‘Fuck you,’ I
scream flicking the lancer onto auto. I held my finger on the
trigger and a continuous beam projected itself from the device. The
beam flashed towards this undying figure. As it rushed towards him
the walls were cooked in the heat of the beam. As it touched him,
he was immediately set on fire, blackening rapidly. Yet still he
seemed to stagger forward. The beam however was too strong. In just
one moment of infinite rapidity, he flickered violently out of
existence.
We rounded
another corner with speed, knowing that we must have alerted the
others. Quickly we found a vantage point from which there was
sufficient cover to lay down some fire. Sure enough a horde of
infected began to run towards us, screaming with inhuman
voices.
Running
towards the cover I let fly with the beam which arced as I spun to
the ground. Its awe inspiring beam pulverised the front line of the
wave. I saw Blue Dawn’s hand ejecting hundreds of blue darts with a
flittering sound. Each dart broke like glass upon the infected,
exploding seconds afterwards. The shards threw flesh across the
hall. I took position and switched to bombardier mode on the
lancer. Squeezing the trigger a hollow thud sounded from the barrel
and a partially visible bolt threw itself from the muzzle. An
explosion of tremendous size threw me backwards. Even the angels
lifted their hands in front of them to shield themselves from the
blast-wave. The walls buckled and promptly ruptured. Metal snapped
with a terrifying whine and silence filled the room.
Hurriedly I
searched for Blue Dawn. She was dragging herself to her feet, still
immaculate. Her dress had collected some dust but it shimmered and
I could see it falling off in a cloud. Within just a moment she
appeared as though she was taking a stroll along a summery lane and
not directly in the aftermath of an explosion. She brushed her
dress anyway, as if out of habit, though I did not know where she
could have picked that up.
In a partial
and dizzy gaze I rose up and stumbled forward. Aeniah was not far
away. I saw a figure running towards me. Over the comms I heard
Aeniah’s distinct voice. ‘Put that fucking gun down, it’s me you
twat.’
With a sudden
elation I realised that it was her and put my lancer down. ‘Thanks
for cleaning up that mess George.’ She stared at my amiable
expression. In order to avoid an awkward moment of fraternity she
stated, ‘well what do you want? Do you seriously expect a hug?’ I
looked down but to my surprise she locked her arms around me and
whispered ‘thank you.’
‘Now ladies
and gentlemen. The CIC is not far from here. So let’s do this. No
complaining now, I won’t stand for it.’ Aeniah finished her heavily
punctuated sentence and practically ran to the sealed door that I
realised was merely yards ahead.
There was no
resistance and we reached the door in minutes. Aeniah hammered her
fist upon it and screamed down the comm lines for Knightly to open
it. Within seconds Knightly responded by opening the door. We
rushed through and into a room of worried looking people. People
gray with fatigue.
Then they
noticed the angels. Now our two groups had rejoined there were a
lot of angels piling into the CIC. Someone screamed and not for the
first time there was pandemonium upon the bridge. Aeniah discharged
her pistol into the air and silence ensued. She was about to open
her mouth to speak when the angels did something that I had not
seen them do before. They vanished. All except my angel.
‘They mean, or
rather they
meant
, no harm’ Aeniah implored. My angel rested
its hand upon my shoulder and gently squeezed. I smiled back at it.
Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Blue Dawn was looking at
us with curiosity. When she caught me registering her stare she
seemed surprised that I had noticed. In an effort to cover up her
scrutiny she moved off serenely to where Aeniah was busy barking
orders to her subordinates, no doubt looking for some way to assert
her authority.
In this moment
of distraction the angle bent its beautiful head towards me and
whispered in a voice that sounded like a wind-chime ‘don’t trust
her.’
In this new
world so many strange things had happened. It was therefore not so
strange that an envelope had appeared in my hand. I had not been
aware of anyone placing it in my grasp. I smelt the paper and it
was crisp and fresh. I had always loved the smell. Where I had come
from, there were so few trees. Books and paper based literature
were things that were held in museums, something regarded with
almost divine reverence. I opened its folded creases and was
transported away into another world.
I saw the girl
who had written it. The words on the page seemed to hint at who she
might have been. I imagined that light shone through her hair and
created a spider web of patterns. I saw her hand move with such
dexterity as it traced her innermost world onto the paper. She was
happy and yet frail at the same time. I did not know this from
looking at her, for there was little I could see, but I felt it. I
saw her as if through a camera, fixed upon a single position,
determined by some powerful director. I saw her write and I saw her
writing.