Chapter 66 - The Descent
Chapter 66 - The Descent
Ryan’s voice crackled over comms. “Twenty minutes, Luca. We’ve been holding for twenty minutes. Tell me you’re close.”
“Working on it,” he said, and cut the channel before Ryan could elaborate.
He shut down a flicker of guilt. They were moving as fast as they could. The XP notifications that rolled in were a grim reminder that their friends were in a desperate fight.
[+41,451 XP]
[+33,679 credits]
He peeked around the next corner. The corridor was clear for now, except for two guards further down. He caught Zoe’s eye and tapped his throat, then shook his head. She got it immediately. She tossed something small against the far wall, a tiny clatter in the dark, and as both guards turned toward the sound, he moved, slow and deliberate, letting the passive camo bleed in around him. There were no sudden movements, just patience and darkness and the guards looking the wrong way.
Darting forward, he activated [True Throw] as his tomahawk hummed through the air. The arc hit its mark, and the guard crumpled without a sound.
Before the body hit the floor, Zoe’s energy dagger flashed as the second guard started to turn. Her target dropped as silently as his.
[+6,377 XP]
[+5,181 credits]
[Item Acquired: Centauri PB-64 “Solar Fang” Plasma Blaster]
A small loot box materialized with a plasma blaster inside. It was useful, but noisy. They moved on.
Heavy footsteps echoed from down the hall, a patrol coming their way.
“Alcove, now,” he whispered.
They pressed themselves flat against a solid wall section, hoping the guards would pass by without noticing them. Six heavily armed guards jogged past, their boots thundering on the metal deck.
The moment the last guard disappeared around the corner, the wall behind them whirred and rotated. Luca stumbled backward as the hidden panel spun, revealing a concealed chamber beyond.
“What the hell—” he started.
He stepped through the threshold and his boot caught something at ankle height. The wire was matte black, flush against the deck plate, and his suit had read it as floor. The wire snapped.
Shit.
Red warning lights flashed as he lost his balance and rolled forward, and a grid of red laser beams snapped to life and cut the room in half, barely missing his foot. Zoe was trapped on the entrance side while he faced banks of research equipment and computer terminals.
“Luca!” Zoe yelled.
A countdown timer appeared on the nearest screen: 00:60... 00:59... 00:58...
The laser grid began moving slowly toward his side of the room, the deadly beams advancing inch by inch and burning the dust motes out of the air. At this rate, he had less than a minute before they reached the far wall and him.
“I’m okay!” he called back, though sweat was already beading on his forehead. “Need to hack this terminal!”
He scrambled to the main console and jammed his hacking pad into the port. The system was layered, way more sophisticated than anything else in this base, with multiple encryption protocols and nested security gates.
00:45... 00:44... 00:43...
“Come on, come on,” he muttered, bypassing the first security layer. The second was a pattern recognition system that required matching energy frequencies. The lasers were now only three feet from the back wall.
00:30... 00:29... 00:28...
“Luca, whatever you’re doing, do it faster!” Zoe called out.
Heat came off the laser grid now, uncomfortably warm even through his suit. The third security layer was a logic puzzle, routing power through the correct circuits to unlock the system. His hands were shaking as he traced the pathways.
00:15... 00:14... 00:13...
The lasers were inches away, and he had one final connection, one last pathway to complete.
00:03... 00:02... 00:01...
Something in the console clicked.
The lasers vanished instantly. The countdown stopped. Blue emergency lighting came on as the security system powered down.
Luca sagged against the console, breathing hard. “Fucking hell.”
Zoe grinned at him from across the room. “That was nice work. What did you find?”
The main screen flickered to life, displaying technical diagrams, mathematical equations, and a title that sent his pulse racing.
“Zoe,” he whispered. “We hit the jackpot.”
[Item Acquired: Reactionless Drive Prototype Schematic (TL9)]
[Item Acquired: Advanced Fusion Reactor Plans]
[Item Acquired: Power Cells x3]
[+25,000 credits]
He grabbed the disks and power cells. A reactionless drive would revolutionize space travel. This single schematic was worth more than everything else they’d found combined.
“We need to get this back to the ship,” he said, securing the data.
They kept moving. Each time they encountered a guard, they took them down with quick strikes. The tomahawk hummed each time it connected, and he felt the faint resistance as it cut through armor.
Zoe stayed at his shoulder, her dagger flashing, her movements fluid.
As they approached the command center, his HUD pinged. He paused, scanning the area. Two more guards were stationed by the door.
“Last stretch,” he said over the comms. “Two guards. We take them out, and we’re in.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Zoe replied. “You take left, I’ll take right?”
The comms crackled with the sound of an explosion. “Luca, Zoe, we’re losing ground here!” Danny was yelling. “Get that command center or we’re toast!”
Luca’s stomach dropped. “Joey?” he asked immediately.
After a beat, Joey’s voice came through, steady but strained. “We’re fine. We’ve got a kill zone set up and we’re funneling them in. Just be careful out there.”
He exhaled slowly. “Copy that.”
The two Varnathi Skirmishers stood guard, their rifles sweeping in jittery arcs. Zoe tapped the side of her helmet. Her suit’s [Active Camouflage] shimmered, and she vanished.
He pressed his back to the wall. One... two... three. He activated his own [Active Camouflage], the suit shimmering as it folded light around him.
A flicker of movement caught his eye, Zoe’s outline gliding across the floor. One of the Skirmishers turned, but it was too late. Her camouflage dropped as she stood behind him, and her dagger sliced clean across his exposed neck. He crumpled to the ground.
Luca didn’t wait. He stepped from cover, arm already moving. His tomahawk spun, then buried itself into the second Skirmisher’s faceplate with a crunch. He staggered, then collapsed.
Zoe turned to look at him, a small smile tugging at her lips as she wiped her blade on the guard’s vest.
[+6,377 XP]
[+5,181 credits]
[Item Acquired: Terrafiber Weave Schematic]
He grabbed the schematic, squinting at the disk in his hand.
Terrafiber Weave
Components: Helium, Carbon, Dysprosium
Requirements: Fiber Weave Chamber
Ultra-light fiber with extreme tensile strength. Ideal for tether cables, structural netting, and carbon-based armor.
He stared at his screen. “What the hell is Dysprosium?”
Zoe leaned over his shoulder to see the display. “I have no idea. That sounds like something for Danny.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, tucking the schematic away. New Dawn had never given them loot like this.
They moved to the command center’s main doors. He pulled out his hacking pad and connected it to the access panel. The system showed the heat signatures inside. The room was packed.
“We can’t fight our way through that,” he muttered. “They’d cut us down.”
Zoe was already tapping her pad. “What about the reactor coolant system? We could flood the room.”
He looked at the heat signatures packed wall to wall and felt the pull of it. It would be clean and fast, and nobody would shoot back. He shook his head. “And then what? We have to hold that room for ten minutes. Fill it with coolant and there’s no room left to hold.”
“Right. So, what? Do we cut the power?”
“Darkness,” he confirmed, pulling up the power grid. “Lock the doors, go in with camo. They’ll panic, we stay invisible.”
Zoe studied him. “Stray rounds don’t care about camo. Are you sure?”
Dad’s voice echoed in his head. “The portals change people, son. Some forget it’s real. Some forget they can die.”
He met her eyes. “It’s risky. But we’ve handled worse. I’ve got your back.”
“And I’ve got yours.” Her grin was quick. “Let’s do this right.”
They moved fast along the outer corridor. The command center occupied a large part of the upper level of this section, with three reinforced blast doors providing access. “If we seal these now, someone inside might notice,” he muttered. “We find the power controls first.”
Zoe nodded, already scanning the wall for utility access. “I’ll trace the grid. There has to be a localized breaker nearby.”
He crouched by the first door’s access panel. With the emergency override panel ripped from the wall, he flicked on the edge current of his tomahawk and pressed the heated edge into the exposed cable bundle, melting the control lines into useless slag.
“System’s live,” he whispered. “I can trigger a manual lockdown for all three doors from any single panel.”
Zoe’s voice crackled in his ear. “Luca, we’ve got a problem.”
“Talk to me.”
“There’s no shutoff access on this level. I traced the conduit. It drops to a sealed sublevel. The reactor’s down there.”
He cursed under his breath. Of course the power source would be in the most protected part of the base.
“I’ll meet you there,” he said, torching the last panel’s wiring. “Don’t cut it without me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
He finished the sabotage and jogged toward her position. So much for easy access. If they wanted the lights out, they were going to have to go deeper, and they had to do it fast.
The stairwell spiraled downward, metal walls narrowing the deeper they went. Luca caught Zoe’s eye through the stuttering emergency lighting and tapped his throat, then pointed to himself. His suit’s environmental warnings flashed amber; prolonged exposure to this atmosphere would eventually overwhelm their protection. She nodded. Two Skirmishers stood guard on the landing below. He moved wide, circling behind both guards while Zoe created a distraction. It was a small sound, just enough to draw their attention forward.
Luca struck from behind, his tomahawk taking the first guard silently. The second spun at the sound, but Zoe was already airborne in a fluid forward somersault that brought her down behind the guard. Her dagger found the gap in his armor before his feet could even shift.
[Item Acquired: Whisper Spire]
[Item Acquired: Plasma Filament Blade (Schematic)]
Luca picked up the spike. It was a [Whisper Spire]. “TL9,” he muttered, turning it over in his hand. “This can bypass security without triggering alarms. Slower than a hack, but clean.”
Zoe held up the glowing schematic disk. “And this will let us upgrade our blades.”
He blinked. That was a game-changer. Both his tomahawk and her dagger could get a serious boost. “Good find,” he said. “A very good find.”
They descended another level. He didn’t like how quiet it was down here.
Zoe froze mid-step. “Hold,” she whispered.
“What?” he whispered back.
She tilted her head slightly. “I saw something.”
He scanned the corridor ahead. It was empty. “I’m not seeing—”
“There’s a shimmer at the far end of the hall,” she cut in, voice sharp.
He flicked through vision modes and got nothing. “Could’ve been heat distortion,” he offered.
“Or it’s TL9 stealth gear,” she replied, already lifting her rifle.
They kept moving cautiously down the corridor and hit another junction, where two Skirmishers stood idle. Zoe moved first, and her shot dropped one. But the second guard turned a half-second too early, catching sight of Luca’s approach.
The Varnathi’s mouth opened to shout a warning. No time for a direct throw. Luca activated [True Throw] and whipped his tomahawk at the wall beside the guard. The blade ricocheted off the metal surface at a sharp angle, striking the Skirmisher in the temple before he could make a sound. Both bodies hit the floor within seconds of each other.
“That was a nice trick shot,” Zoe whispered.
“True Throw,” he replied, retrieving his tomahawk.
[+6,377 XP]
[+5,181 credits]
There was still nothing behind them, but Zoe didn’t relax. “We’re being followed,” she said, low.
“I’m telling you, I’m not seeing—”
Pain exploded across his neck as a strong arm yanked him back.
His back slammed against the wall.
A blade pressed against his throat, cool and sharp even through the armor seal.