Harbinger, Short Story, Season 1 Finale
Harbinger
A Xochitl Khae Short Story
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Harbinger Pt. 1 _____________________________ My eyes opened as the proximity chime sounded, signaling our imminent arrival at the destination. I disengaged the supercruise assist module and took manual control, wanting to stop short and survey the planet thoroughly. Though it looked like another lifeless rock, one never knew what little gems it might contain. Sometimes you would be surprised at what awaited in a nowhere place such as this. The readings returned a healthy listing of minerals, but no signs of volcanism or biological activity. There were surface contacts, which were usually associated with various space debris finding its way to the planet's surface. However, one signal stood out from the rest: another distress signal. This wasn't surprising, given what I had read from the regional news. A recent war had just finished in a nearby system, which explained the slowdown in trading traffic and the lack of pirate activity in this system. The trades weren't as lucrative at the moment, and the pirates were capitalizing on all the damaged ships and lost cargo. Chances were the distress signal below belonged to one of those lost ships, and it was profitable to render assistance. I wouldn't say it was out of the goodness of my heart, as that was artificial as well. I doubted I had feelings one way or the other. I approached cautiously, keeping my distance from the pirate security skimmers that were guarding the site. With my two medium burst lasers at the ready, I took out each skimmer in turn before landing next to the visible escape pods. As before, I retrieved them using my onboard Scarab surface vehicle, bringing each into the bay. This time, I also found two containers of narcotics, indicating that this site had value not only in cargo but also in people. As I began to lift off, my scanner showed a fast-approaching contact. I boosted forward to close the distance and get past whomever it was in the shortest amount of time. The contact resolved itself into a heavily armed and armored Alliance Crusader, and they had a bounty. While I had a decent chance of victory against it in my far smaller Cobra, my mission wasn't in claiming their bounty, but in getting my cargo away from them. I watched as they overheated their ship boosting as hard as they could into orbit, to wait for me to appear. I kept my ship below the orbital cruise line, where it could not be intercepted, and selected the system where my carrier was parked. By the time the Crusader realized what had happened, I would be more than thirty light years away, with their prize in my cargo hold. |
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I arrived at my carrier, docking my little Mk. Iv. into the hangar. As I stepped out of my ship, I was greeted by the familiar hum of the station's systems, unloading the cargo hold, with medical technicians standing by to quickly process and sent the occupied escape pods to the medical bay for evaluation, while the two cargo pods of narcotics were taken to secured storage. There was nothing new in this experience, but something felt off about this particular snatch-and-grab rescue. Not the pirate I foxed or the narcotics. I couldn’t place it. A weird sensation. I decided to review the data logs from my ship's computer and the escape pods to see if there was anything that could explain the strange feeling. As I began to sift through the information, one particular piece caught my attention. Little artistic scribbles on a few of the pods. Almost unrecognizable. A medical technician's voice appeared in my head. ‘Captain. One of the escape pods we offloaded contains an android. None of the occupants of the other pods we have revived have knowledge of an android being present with their crew. Do you want it reactivated for questioning?’ Dammit. I knew something felt off about all of this. ‘No. Keep the pods with the scribbles quarantined, along with any autonomous unit that has looked at all of those writings. Isolate and scrub any computer system or tablet that has looked at all of those writing too. Do not allow any other system to analyze the scribbles on the pods or access their data logs. Those human members which have been revived. I want Zarathustra to interrogate each. I want to know who they are with, what their ship was, who amongst them made those scribbles, and whose android it is.’ ‘Yes, mam.’ ‘Captain, what are your suspicions?’ It was Avery… I remembered seeing this before. More than a decade passed when I was a young mechanic, during a dust-up between the Federation and a group of particularly nasty techno pirates. ‘Those scribbles are each a part of a viral code, that when combined makes a program that is activated by a specific series of triggers, which will turn the adversaries' systems against them. Reference techno pirate and Federation conflict, 3301.’ ‘Analyzing … Records found … analyzing … please wait Captain.’ Please wait my left arse, I thought as I began to make my way to the medical bay. ‘Record found. The code appears corrupted on pods. Recommend complete quarantine as a precaution.’ I entered the hangar elevator and went up two decks to medical, and exited, stomping passed one of the security posted there. ‘Lock and load and follow me,’ I growled, marching down the corridor. ‘Captain, medical reports an issue with one of their medical androids.’ Yeah, I bet there is. ‘Complete quarantine that section. If armed personnel are present, neutralize it. If not, wait … I’m almost there and will do it myself.’ ‘Section quarantined. Security notified.’ I could hear crashing and whirling sounds as I made my way to the medical bay, as I pulled my Zenith laser pistol out of its holster. Raising my weapon I entered the bay, catching the android's attention as it turned and charged. I fired a quick burst burning three holes into its center mass but knew it was not enough as it lunged towards me. I caught it with my own cybernetic arm and applied pressure. It flailed and struggled to free itself, as I lifted it up and slammed it onto the deck, firing another burst into the cranial case, neutralizing it. ‘I want all systems on this deck to be scrubbed. Check all other systems and neutralize any infected item. And, get Zarathustra to begin a hard interrogation of the humans in those pods, asap. I want to know everything. The who, what, when, where.’ I looked back at the glaring security guard behind me. ‘Any other malfunctioning unit, you shoot, whether a person is in the way or not, including myself, got it?’ He smiled in the affirmative, as I stomped passed him, back toward the elevators. I contacted Chief Bowen and ordered him to conduct a full system-wide sweep for any other infected devices. His crew was already on it. What a fine day this turned out to be. |
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The ordeal lasted a few hours. We got off lucky. The code was corrupted, and no other systems had been infected. The medical android I put down, would not have acted the way it did until the code was activated. With the code being corrupted, it had no restrictions and thus lost its inhibition routines. There was no danger to my own systems from the code, as per my cybernetic design being mechanic centric. Nothing would automatically download and activate without me physically allowing it. It was also why my cybernetics were so hardy when compared to an android. My design had to be strong to lift and bend ship parts while being articulate enough to manipulate IC connectors. Zarathustra had completed the interrogation of the human survivors, and I had a clearer understanding of what had happened. They were a group of smugglers, attempting to prosper from the aftermath of the minor factional war which had recently finished, and had stolen a ship from one of the local pirate groups. The idiots did not take the ship from the losing faction but from the victors. A ship that was designed to be discarded and captured by the losing party, to infect them with this code. The war ended before they had sent it, and they left it where it sat, while they went about collecting the spoils of their victory when this band of merry morons found it and jacked it. Of course, the ship itself was an infected source and they didn’t make it far, having to abandon it. Being the thorough little pirates that they were, everything about this ship was toxic, including the escape pods, which a rival pirate or raider faction would descend upon, and voila, chaos. No wonder they sent that armored Alliance Chieftain after it. They wanted everything about their little monstrosity erased, and for good reason. And, here this cyborg had to go and rescue it. Yes, I went stupid and should have checked it better myself. Had I known, I would have popped and rescued the idiots out of their pods, secured them, then turned the site to ash. Most pirates—or any faction—messed with coding of this sort unless they just didn’t care about fallout. It wasn’t good for business, whether honest or otherwise. Anything technology based would be worthless, as it would all be corrupted. It was doomsday type code to insure complete chaos, requiring a complete purge of just about everything to clean the situation. Knowing there were those out there will to go this far, meant I would need harden my own automatons. It was not a difficult process, simply turn off non-physical processing, requiring anything downloaded to be through a physical connection. A nuisance for field use, but aboard ship, it wasn’t that big of a deal. What was a big deal was that pirate clan. Was it the whole clan behind this, or a small group? |
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Subjectively, interlude _____________________________ Looking at my bed, it was easy to get soft in an environment like this. While part of me longed for it, reminding myself that each moment of this had been hard-earned, the other side of me was not yet ready to give up what I had been. Flexing my cybernetic hand reminded me of everything that had happened, setting me on the path as an independent contractor and the long road that led me to this. Where would I have been if the accident did not occur? The what-if game was as easy to fall into as that large bed, a luxurious trap of the mind as that bed was to this body. Both were fun to explore, but did I really want to be trapped by either? Playing the opposing advocate, would I deny myself what I had earned, not be trapping myself in past hubris? I remembered when it was just me and my Diamondback Explorer. Going about, contracting myself to whatever faction made the most sense with decent pay, then moving on to the next job. Supplementing my income by raiding the local raider’s settlements and scrap collecting on whatever planet I landed upon. I had towed, fixed, refurbished, and sold more ships than I would ever own, and part of my current collection was from just such expeditions. With the credits earned from that, I purchased a massive Imperial Cutter and decked it out with everything a mobile base would need, with a watchmaker's attention given to its engineering. With that behemoth, I could grapple and carry larger ships to locations where they could be worked upon or scrapped. Even then, I questioned whether I needed a ship as massive as that, and honestly, I rarely used it. I stared at my flexing hand. Now I had a fleet carrier, a mobile station of its own, that the Cutter sat inside, dwarfed by its surrounding expanse. I fell onto the bed, disappearing into my neural processor. Tomorrow was another time, subjectively. |
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Harbinger Pt. 2 _____________________________ The Vulture heavy fighter was not a stealth ship by anyone’s imagination, but with careful planning, any ship could be stealthy temporarily. The planetary settlement was on the opposite side of the rise from my position, out of the direct line of sight, and its sensors blocked to my presence by the surrounding terrain. I would make the remainder of the distance on the ground in my Scorpion combat vehicle. The Scorpion could carry two tons of cargo, which I made good use of, with two presents loaded for the inhabitants. With everything turned off, I would be able to approach quickly, and unless someone was looking in my direction, I would arrive undetected. Making my way to the backside of their facility, I secreted my vehicle in a little alcove next to the settlement’s landing pad. It was odd that there were no lights and no sign of anyone. I pulled out the two containers, dragging them back from my vehicle. Opening their lids, I pressed the activation buttons, and two sets of glowing eyes appeared, looking at me. I pulled out my carbine and charged it, pointing across the landing pad. ‘Seek, neutralize, report.’ Two Achilles combat androids stood up from their containers and took off at a fast pace across the landing pad, as I followed loosely behind, watching for any signs of movement. This was odd. All the atmospheric shutters were down and locked, with no sign of a breach. The power was clearly off throughout the entire complex, with no emissions of any type detectable, as I scanned the EM band. The two androids were running around, checking the sealed hatches on each building, as I trotted back to my Scorpion. The droids were on top of the buildings, going across their roofs, seeking any accessible entry, as I pulled my vehicle up next to the settlement’s power center. As a mechanic, I always kept an additional power regulator handy, just in case. Now was as good a time as any, as I dismounted and went to the door's access panel. My Maverick suit came equipped with an arc torch that I could either weld or cut with. Cutting open the panel, I used a portion of my suit’s power to charge it, as the doors slid open, showing a darkened interior. ‘Guard,’ I said into my helmet’s communicator as the two androids jumped down and ran over to secure the entrance, as I entered. There was no atmosphere. Even if the power had been lost, the atmosphere within would have been contained and used. If anyone was present and the power was off, the O2 would have been replaced by CO2, without the scrubbers being active, yet there was nothing. The atmosphere had been vented, but by whom? I made my way down the hall to the power center doors and cut through them as I had the main entrance. Shining my helmet light around, I saw the atmospheric control panel. It had not been cut or damaged. Working my way toward the reactor, I saw the first body. Their hands and face were burned, but no other signs of trauma. Pressing lightly on their chest confirmed that this one did not die from decompression when the atmospheric pressure was vented. Searching around further, I found a blown-out panel at the top of the steps, on the backside of the reactor. There were anodized electrical scorching marks around it. Playing my light along the remainder of the panel and along the walls back toward the regulator housing showed no further damage. This was not the result of an unregulated surge but a targeted pulse directed at whoever was on this panel. Looking back, I knew who that someone was, but where was everyone else? Walking around the reactor I studied it carefully. There were no signs of damage to it or to the conduits going to the power regulators. Searching the electromagnetic spectrum with my cybernetic eye, there were no signs of there having been power, which was contrary. There should be a trace that this place was once powered but there was nothing. Walking back outside, I pointed to the habitation building. ‘Force entry and report.’ The two androids ran over to a near building that was the central habitation model and forced open its doors. I adjusted my cybernetic eye to thermal and could see their forms within an interior that was the same temperature as the planet around it. ‘No life signs. Several bodies present.’ ‘Exit and guard,’ I commanded, walking to the building. I stopped briefly before entering, looking at the two androids who stood in place, scanning the facility. That odd feeling crept through me again, as I walked into the building, seeing what had been reported, several bodies. There were half-eaten trays of food on the ground, near where a few of the bodies had fallen. The food center panel was blown out, as was the entryways exit panel. The bodies near the spilled trays had looks of agony on their faces, whereas the bodies near the blown-out panels looked the same as the ones in the power center. Two of the bodies at the far end looked different than the others, as I walked over and inspected them closely. These two did perish from decompression and exposure to the outside atmosphere, meaning this was all intentional. I exited the building and made my way back to my Scorpion vehicle, where I retrieved the genetic sampler and a small bag of sampler modules, used with my Artemis exploration suit. Making my way back to the habitat, I went to the spilled trays and scanned them for analysis. I also scanned the bodies near the trays, those at the far corner, and at the entrance. I would need to get these back aboard the ship and send what was recorded back to the carrier for medical analysis. That odd feeling remained, and with the thoughts of why I was here fresh in my memory, I did not want anyone else down here. The two androids I brought with me, would not be returning. Considering what their clan had done, I could not risk anything becoming infected by the same virus that sent one of my medical androids into a rage. Making my way back to the ship, I secured the Scorpion vehicle back in its hangar, and lifted off, to hover a few hundred meters above the facility. I could see my androids continuing to guard the entrance to the habitat, as I placed the first sample container into the ship's portable medical scanner. I sent a message to Avery, outlining the scene encountered, and that I had genetic samples from the scene for medical analysis, but that everything needed to take place within an isolated sandbox system before it could be sent. After several minutes of no response, I diverted power and boosted the signal, repeating the message. Still no reply—This was becoming more unusual with each passing moment. I was thrown against the bulkhead behind the pilot’s seat, as the ship lurched and pivoted violently, sliding towards the surface below. I grabbed the back of the pilot’s chair with my cybernetic arm, applying more force than usual to pull myself towards it, as its headrest bent. |
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I woke, attempting to understand what happened, as my neural processor ran a systems check, finding only minor injuries. As I slowly regained my senses, The sound of metal creaking and the hiss of escaping gas filled my ears. I slowly realized that I was trapped in the wreckage of the Vulture heavy fighter. I heard the familiar sound of the Achilles combat androids and the bending screeching sound of bending metal, as they tore into the debris around me. After a few moments, the androids were able to clear a path for me, as I crawled out of the wreckage. I stood up with some minor pain and looked around at the scene. There was still dust in the air from the impact, which meant that I had not been unconscious for very long, with the gravity of this world. The debris was not wide scattered, with no major part having gone more than a few meters, due to the low altitude before the ship decided to impact itself into the soil. ‘Help me find the remains of the Scorpion vehicle,’ I commanded, as I began working my way towards what would have been the hangar. The two androids worked with me, bending and tearing at the metal of what would have been the hangar doors, revealing the armored vehicle still intact, and laying on its side. Well, at least this was good, news for once. They helped me pull it onto its wheels, as I jumped in to run a systems check. All reported back positive. Aside from a few dents on its armored hide, it survived in good condition. I was thankful I decided to outfit my Vulture with this combat-centric vehicle. A lighter more nimble Scarab would have been destroyed in the crash. I took stock of everything I had on board. Water, rations, materials for synthesis, extra battery packs, ammunition, two suits in their cases, field medical trauma kits, an assortment of hand tools, yep, everything where it should be. That was good news. I had more than enough inside to survive for an extended duration, and with enough synthesis materials onboard, I could keep the vehicle powered and fueled for even longer, insuring my two androids would be at full charge. Looking at the settlement I decided that there was no point in returning. Something awful had taken place there, and considering all that had recently happened aboard the carrier, and now with my Vulture that decided to depart itself and crash into the planet, left me with an odd feeling deep within. Everything felt connected somehow, I just did know-how, as I raised the face plate on my helmet and leaned back in the seat. |
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Harbinger Pt. 3, Finale _____________________________ Waking up from a much-needed nap, I became aware that there were times I was thankful to those who rebuilt me, as my neural processor provided for pain management while informing me that my biological systems have sustained minor damages, but nothing requiring immediate attention. In other words, it was saying I was banged up and bruised with nothing broken or punctured, thanks to my suit. My android guards were watching the perimeter as I pulled out a ration bar and began to chew on it. All the vitamins, proteins, and minerals my body needed, were compressed and condensed into a chewy bar that said it had the flavor of beef but tasted the same way that wet cardboard smelled. I wasn’t going to complain considering the alternative, as I looked at the settlement. There was no way I was going near that place again, now that my processor had time to work over all the variables while I was napping. That almost made me feel bad, that my processor had to spend so much time dealing with me that it couldn’t process the scene until I wasn’t in the picture. That gave me a smile and a chuckle. After it had time to analyze everything known about the virus, correlated with the most recent finds, and the potential for cross-contamination, my processor determined that the virus itself was originally engineered to be stored in a DNA sample, and these idiot pirates thought it was a good idea to use it against their enemy, and in turn, it infected and destroyed them, before they had a chance to use it. Without a further examination of the corpses at the settlement, there was no way to determine how long they had been in their condition, but there was no way I was going near that place again. Chances are that the pirate Alliance Chieftain that had descended on the site where I found the escape pods, knew of what had happened, and what that infected scribbled degraded code on them was; being most likely from the android that was in one that the humans did not know about. That would mean that the original version of the code was at this settlement, and had turned on its inhabitants. From the look on those who had collapsed near the food trays, it took them from within, the others it took out from the exploding panels, with the two found at the far corner, it exposed to the outside atmospheric pressure, insuring there were no survivors. It then lay dormant, waiting for someone—like me—to come along and investigate, where it could then spread to a new host, like my genetic scanner and ship. It had enough intelligence to know it was being medically scanned for analysis and in self-preservation mode, decided to end me, in the only way it knew how, hoping to be rediscovered by someone who would not scan it, until it was too late. Well, I was glad I could stop it here, but I was worried about my crew. If my processor had deduced the events correctly, it could be transmitted through communications channels, meaning if my carrier received my signal, it could be infected again. That made me pause, as I lowered my helmet’s face plate into position. The Scorpion I was sitting in was inside the hangar on my ship, when it was infected, and this homicidal virus tried to end me. No, it couldn’t have infected the scorpion. There was no connection between it and the ship. The Vulture class ships were horrible at power management, even with the best-fine-tuned engineering applied. As a mechanic, I knew this, and always turned off non-essential items when not in use. The hangar was not powered, hence there was no connection between it and the ship. That made me breathe easier, as my two combat androids standing guard outside, were connected to the Scorpion, keeping their charge up, and had not turned homicidal. I got off lucky on that one, and I would take luck over skill any day. As I sat there, contemplating the events that had transpired, I realized that I needed to contact the carrier and let them know what had happened. But first, I needed to make sure that the virus was contained, and that there were no further risks of contamination. I decided to run a full diagnostic of all my equipment and systems to make sure that nothing had been compromised. I spent the next several hours going over everything, from the Scorpion vehicle to my suits and even my android guards. Everything checked out clean, and there were no signs of any kind of infection. Feeling a sense of relief, I contacted the carrier and informed them of what had happened, then turned off my communicator, so that if they were infected, and there was a reply, it wouldn’t spread back to me. Looking over at the wreck that was my Vulture I saw one of the sample canisters laying in the debris. The harbinger of doom sitting a few meters away, and it was powerless inside that little container. My mission was to insure it stayed in that little container. |
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I sifted through the wreckage of the Vulture, looking at anything that may have survived its crash other than the canister. Not that I would take anything that remained as it was suspect and unusable, but it would let me know what needed to be destroyed and to get accountability. The settlement beyond would need to be erased, with not the smallest trace remaining. The only surety of insuring complete neutralization was thermal, and their hydrogen fusion reactor would be the fuse. First I would need to set the conditions before powering it up for its detonation, otherwise, the virus might find a way to stop what it would recognize as its demise. No androids or anything technologically corruptible would be allowed near the facility. This would be done old school, with nothing that could stop it from running away once it started. I wanted this nasty little bugger to know what awaited it, to savor every millisecond, knowing as its victims did, that in the end, there was nothing they could do about it. This was it or us, and I chose us. I modified my Artemis suit for the task, as it was best suited, being an exploration suit meant to be around biological substances. All technological elements of it were disabled, with a simple mechanical gauge to show my suit’s power and O2 levels. Even the light would be powered by a battery pack and not from the suit. Anything that could be isolated or negated was. I wouldn’t give this bastard a chance to survive. With a bag of tools in hand, I used low gravity to hop to the settlement. I wouldn’t even grace it by driving back to it. Take no chances and leave nothing behind was the mantra as I entered the reactor room, setting to my task. I needed to make sure that once the fusion began that it would proceed into a thermal energy runaway condition. Unlike fission reactors, this wouldn’t be a meltdown, but the end result would be more dramatic, as the runaway would achieve a condition where it would breach, resulting in the release of a massive amount of energy. Based on the fuel levels stored, I figured roughly a few hundred kilotons at least. Anything not immediately consumed by this would be dusted with radioactive tritium, insuring the demise of all RNA and DNA present, even in the deepest recesses where this critter may try to burrow a piece of itself in hopes of surviving. It took me several trips to recharge and replenish my O2 before I was certain there was no way any form of safety could interrupt the process once it had begun. There were no doubts that it would recognize the situation for what it was, and attempt to squirrel a molecule of itself somewhere, to attempt to survive, but everything would happen within minutes, not giving it much time to find a way to accomplish that feat … good luck you little nightmare, I whispered as I set a mechanical timer, that would release and physically close a power regulator into its housing, and initial the process. Hopping back to my Scorpion took several minutes. More than enough time, as I ordered the two androids to climb on top, then I started up and drove away. There was high ground to the south, and If my math was correct, I would be able to crest it safely and be on the backside of it, before the process began. Unless that thing developed a body with physical arms, there was no way for it to stop the mechanical process. Guess I would find out soon enough as I gunned the Scorpion up the steep face of the mountain, dodging boulders as I went. More than a couple of hours passed, as I crested then descended down the backside of the mountain, finding an alcove midway down, which I backed the Scorpion into. That gave me a slight chuckle, thinking of a scorpion burrowing its way into a protective little hole, waiting for the right moment. I ordered my androids to turn away and face into the little cave, as I activated both my suit’s and vehicle’s shields and filters. Any moment now, I whispered, measuring where the sun was in the sky as a poor man’s time-measuring device. The sunlight outside vanished into a brightness that caused the filters to intensify so much that everything went black, as the mountain shook and vibrated violently. There was no atmosphere to carry any sound, otherwise I would have probably went deaf. I could feel the heat inside my suit, while in the vehicle, as an intense spectral glow sparkled all around, as my suit’s shields absorbed the parts of the gamma ray burst that made its way through the Scorpion’s shielding. I knew my internals were taking a bit of a hit, as my neural processor sent a wild series of commands to the nanobots inside that helped regulate my cybernetic and biological functions. Everything began to return to normalcy as the filters reduced back to a point where I could see again. Looking back, both androids were laying flat, overcome by the neutron and gamma burst. If I wanted to keep them, they would need to be decontaminated and reprogrammed. I drove forward cautiously, knowing better than to get out, as the outside temperature reading had yet to stabilize. It would take it several days before the glowing hole I made, became something close to normal. At least I knew my project had been a success. The good and bad news was, this event would register throughout several systems, and draw attention. Whose attention could either be good or bad. Unknown to me at the moment was Zarathustra had a rescue team in orbit above, and had been monitoring my progress. The carrier had not been infected, though the signal I sent was, and Avery and the ship’s AI saw the virus’s footprint hidden in the message I sent and blocked it. They knew my location and had my security chief send a team to recover what might remain of me. Fortunately for all of us, I was still here, and the infected settlement was not. Driving out of the alcove I looked back once more. The two droids were better left where they lay, as I turned the Scorpion’s plasma repeating turret rearward, and fired at the rocks above the opening, collapsing it. I hated leaving them, but it would be a royal pain to decontaminate, rebuild, and reprogram them. Best to leave them to some future rock hound, who might find them in a millennia or so. I saw the approaching ship on my sensors, getting my vehicle ready for combat, not knowing who it might be, as it turned parallel to my position, then landed where I could see some form of visual identification. They knew there was no way I would activate my communications; not that many worked near the area at the moment. I chuckled looking at my targeting system, seeing Zarathustra wave from the ship's cockpit in the distance. At least it wouldn’t be a fight for survival to get off this rock, as I picked a path to descend down to them. Dang I made a mess. Most of the larger boulders that were above when I crested this mountain, were now down at the base, making it difficult to get passed, but I managed. I wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible. There were no doubts that several factions would be sending a ship or more this way to see what the heck happened. I made a mental note to have Avery pay close attention to the regional news. With hopes they would report this as a reactor malfunction and leave it at that. Ground zero would be far too hot to get out and investigate, and even if anyone could, there was nothing there. The only thing that would suggest someone had done this, was burned out and buried in the mountain above. Tremors continued throughout the next few days as the shockwaves from the event circumnavigated the planet, causing landslides that opened an odd random fissure. A series of rocks, midway up the side of a mountain shifted under the turmoil, as a set of lighted eyes looked out from them, on a barren landscape in wonder. |