Site Beta One Outpost Alpha

Henry immediately had his weapon ready when he beamed down. Unfortunately, he had some disorientation due to the beaming process. Of course, nothing was wrong with the technology. Rather, the blinding light and sudden environmental shift were the culprits. He made a mental note to close his eyes before beaming and then reopening them once he heard the audio cue of the beaming’s completion.

He then looked around. The design and architecture of the whole place was consistent with those of Site Beta One. Scanning the room, he found no hostile elements. Perhaps they had gone toward their base of operations in order to report to their superiors. Once he was certain the area was clear, he went back to his team, all of whom but one were resting on crates.

“Everyone okay?” Henry asked.

“Just a little dizzy,” Emma replied.

“Haha, WOO! That was a rush!” Dr. Jones said ecstatically. He was the only one not resting on a crate.

Ron and Kelmithus replied with standard “yeahs”, very contrasting compared to Jones’ excitement.

“Alright. Let’s keep moving. Our objective is to figure out just what the hell is going on here. Jones, make sure to renew the spell once it runs out. For now, let’s follow those other guys. Looks like they’re up ahead in a room of some sort. Maintain stealth. Only engage when I give the signal,” Henry ordered.

“We should be wary. They might know we are here. If they were able to figure out how to use the transporter and how to turn on the lights, they may have also figured out how to use the systems in this place. They may be tracking us using the internal sensors,” Ron cautioned.

Henry nodded and signalled everyone to move forward slowly. The highlighted Nobians from before were about 100 meters up ahead and to the right, Henry deduced, based on the sizes of their figures. Currently, they did not have to worry about any Nobians waiting in ambush, since they were walking down a brightly lit hallway, with the only entrances in front and behind. Taking advantage of this, Henry and his team moved as quickly as possible until they could reach the intersecting corridor ahead.

It was a crossroads, with a door directly in front and two diverging paths, left and right. At this point, the highlighted Nobians were right in front of them. However, the lights revealing their location were quickly disappearing. When once they could see their entire outlines, now they could only see a small glow, each representing one Nobian.

The fading lights showed a few men in the room directly ahead, with many more behind. Or rather, it might’ve been a large chamber, seeing that most of the Homagus building sections were incredibly vast, with smaller rooms in each chamber. If it was truly a large chamber, then that meant almost 30 men were in there, ready to hold the choke point that was the doorway. They could probably throw flashbangs inside, but it wouldn’t be effective enough to neutralize all of the men in the chamber. They could also try combining this with a shield or other magical spells from the two wizards on Alpha Team, but there could be enemy wizards on the other side as well. They needed another way to neutralize them, or more men.

“29 tangoes right in front of us. How are we gonna approach this, sir?” Ron asked.

Henry looked over to Jones and Kelmithus. “Do you two know of any way to neutralize all the men in there?”

Kelmithus stroked his magnificent, gray beard for a moment. Jones simply stood still and stared into nothing, perhaps communicating with Omnis. After pondering for a few seconds, both came up with a resounding “Ah!”, signifying that they’ve come up with ideas.

“You first, Kelmithus,” Dr. Jones offered.

Kelmithus nodded and began his explanation. “I’ve been studying your ways for quite some time now, particularly your flashbangs and explosives. After our battle with the epic dragon, I experimented with flash spells. I can summon a flare in the chamber in order to temporarily blind them, as well as an explosion to deal damage and disorient them. Once my flashboom spell is complete, I will summon a cold gale into the room and we can push in with a shield around us.”

Henry contemplated this plan. This flashboom of his could potentially work, but what if there were wizards in there who have learned how to counter flashbangs? The U.S. used enough flashbangs on Nobian warriors that at this point, their wizards must’ve figured out how to create a defense against them. Though, the cold wind could help throw off wizards who are expecting a flashbang.

He then turned to Jones, wanting to hear his idea.

“I was thinking of summoning some golems and letting them do the work for us.”

“Don’t you need some material to make a golem?” Emma asked. “I’ve read reports on the Battle of Fort Washington, and the enemy mages summoned dirt golems from the environment around them.”

“Well, I thought about that and I came up with a workaround, with the help of Omnis. There are many things in our environment that we can use. For example, we can make golems out of the walls, but I’d rather not exert myself trying to dismantle Homagus engineering. Instead, we can use the air.”

“Omnis… that’s the guy in the crystal?” Emma tried to remember what she’d read. She still couldn’t wrap her head around that.

“Yeah.”

“Dr. Jones, I don’t mean to be critical, but how are air golems gonna help us fight the bad guys?” Henry asked.

“Ah, I was just getting to that. Now, consider the force shield. I can create a force shield golem by summoning a shield around a pocket of air, like this.” Jones created a force shield golem, humanoid in shape, but twice as large as a human. “I could further shrink this golem, compressing the air inside, and on my command, the shield will disappear and send everyone inside flying.”

Once more, Henry pondered another possible avenue for their breaching and clearing operation. The two plans could potentially be combined for a more effective one.

“Okay, I think I’ve got it. First, I want Kelmithus to use his flashboom spell once we open that door. Kel, you’re gonna have a very small window to cast your spell; once we open that door, everyone on the other side will be ready to strike. Second: the flashboom has gone off, I want Dr. Jones to send in the suicide golem. On his signal, we push in with a force shield around us and pick off the stragglers. Lamarr, Owens, you’re with me.”

As soon as he finished relaying his orders, the lights that were detailing the enemy positions disappeared. Henry looked over to Jones. “Can you renew the spell?”

“They’re gonna know we’re here,” Jones replied.

Henry thought about it for a moment. On one hand, they will reveal their position to the entire complex, and there was no telling how many hostiles might rush to their position once they’re hit with the scanning pulse. On the other hand, it could tell them exactly how many more Nobians were stationed here, and of the situation in the other room. Eventually, they’re going to need the pulse, so Henry decided Jones might as well conduct his spell now.

“Okay, do it.”

Once more, a pulse of energy emitted from the Scepter of Axnial, passing through the walls of the facility and encapsulating the Nobian troops in light.

“On three.” Henry moved his hand over the pad as the rest of his team positioned themselves on opposite sides of the door.

“One.”

Kelmithus began his incantations.

“Two.”

Jones summoned the force shield golem and began compressing it.

“Three.”

Henry slid his hand downward, opening the door.

The door slid open, and the atmosphere became tense. Nothing came out from the other side; no spells, no crossbow bolts. The Nobians waited for someone to peak out from behind the door.

With his spell now ready, Kelmithus quickly peaked the door and aimed his staff into the chamber. Unfortunately for the Nobians, their reflexes couldn’t catch up with those of an old man, thanks to a speed spell. Immediately, after Kelmithus withdrew to the safety of the hallway a bright light engulfed the room. It was so bright that it outshined the lights in the hallway. Following the burst of light was a burst of sound, caused by a combination of vacuum knowledge and magic. Unlike the Nobian warriors, Alpha Team prepared for this.

BOOM!

A voice shouted from the Nobian side of the room. It seems that the Nobians did in fact find a way to defend themselves against flashbangs. Henry filed this information away into his mental notes. Working with expert precision, Jones then sent in the suicide golem, which ran into the center of the room and burst open.

POP!

The gust of wind sent the Nobian warriors inside flying, many of them making contact with the walls, creating numerous thud sounds. On the other side of the door, Alpha Team felt the wind as the room depressurized. Even though it was short, at just above shoulder length, Emma’s hair went flying and smacked into Henry, who was behind her.

Brushing it off, Henry gave the order to move in. “Go!”

Kelmithus and Jones took point, holding up Alpha Team’s shield. Henry, Ron, and Emma quickly followed behind, scanning the room for any target still standing. As they looked around the room, they saw blood splattered over the walls, with the broken bodies of Nobian warriors below each respective blood stain.

“My God, that Air Burst Golem worked a bit too well…” Emma muttered, surveying the gruesome damage.

Indeed, the effects of having thousands of cubic feet worth of air compressed into a small vessel were devastating. If shield compression was this destructive, Emma wondered what it could do to a person inside of a shield, or even a planet. She shuddered merely thinking about it.

After checking the bodies, they discovered that no one survived the attack. Having cleared the chamber, they looked around. It was quite similar in design to Section 2 of Site Beta One; it was a control room. They continued into the chamber, toward the next batch of highlighted foes. There were ten of them, rushing to the chamber in order to reinforce their allies. Unfortunately for them, Alpha Team knew exactly where they were coming from. Taking up a position behind a control table, Alpha Team waited for the Nobians to arrive.

Despite being equipped with the best armor produced by Nobian forges, the warriors were quickly turned into Swiss cheese by the Otherworldly weapons.

TATATATATATA!

Alpha Team’s combined fire of P90s, N25 bolts, and ice projectile spells made quick work of all but one.

—

“How…” the survivor muttered as he fell to the floor, bullet holes throughout his breastplate. The survivor couldn’t imagine how pathetic his last battle was. As a guard to the emperor himself, he was supposed to lay down his life for Emperor Novus. However, he never imagined it to be like this. It was as if an epic dragon was after the emperor, and he was sent to his certain death in order to slow the beast down.

The survivor then realized that someone was standing above him. The bearded man had an object aimed at him. No, it wasn’t one of those black objects that spewed small metal arrows. This one looked different, and seemed as if it had lightning coursing through its mechanisms.

—

Henry aimed his N25 energy pistol at the lone Nobian survivor. “Why are you here?!”

Seeing no response from the man, he pressed his boot onto the Nobian soldier’s breastplate, specifically targeting his bullet wounds.

“AAGH!” The soldier screamed in pain.

“Talk!” Henry commanded.

“I… serve… to protect… the Emperor…” he muttered before passing out.

Henry turned back to his team. “That must mean Emperor Novus is here! Somehow he escaped from our spies in his castle… We need to find him and capture him. I know our orders aren’t to find him, but I know for damn sure they would be if the general knew our situation.”

“No signal from our equipment. I guess it would be hard to penetrate all the layers of earth and rock above us,” Emma added.

“Yeah. Okay, so we’ve got to continue deeper into this outpost. These guards came from this corridor, so I assume that the life signs up ahead are the emperor and the remainder of his guard.”

Henry led Alpha Team toward the next group of highlighted foes; their numbers at 15.

“Alright. Let’s do what we did earlier, but if the Emperor is really in there, we need to try and take him alive. Jones, ease up on the air burst.”

Dr. Jones nodded and everyone got into position.

“On three.”

“One… two… three!”

Henry slid his hand over the door’s pad, but nothing happened. Instead of sliding open, the door gave a buzzing sound, as if their access was denied. Upon closer inspection, there was a sign above the door’s pad, written in an unknown language.

“Jones?”

“Hmm, it’s in Homagus. Omnis says the room is a research lab belonging to a Maniss Lore. Authorized personnel only.”

“If it’s in Homagus, shouldn’t our communication buff translate it?” Henry asked Kelmithus.

“My communication spell can only work in the presence of a physical being or a knowledge base, such as a dictionary. It can not translate a language based on one sign. Even magic has its limits.”

“I see. Jones, can you and Omnis find a way to access this door?”

“Can’t do that. We need a keycard.” Jones paused for a second. “Hold on, Omnis says there is a locker room through the second corridor. We have to go back to the chamber and get to that locker room.”

“Alright. Let’s all go. If these guys try to leave we’ll see them anyway,” Henry said, referring to Jones’ vision pulse.

Alpha Team backtracked to Section 2 and navigated toward the locker room. The door to this room was not locked, and the team began searching for the keycard.

“I found Maniss Lore’s locker,” Ron announced.

Alpha Team crowded around him as he sifted through the ancient scientist’s personal effects. After discovering a picture of the scientist’s family, he remarked upon the picture’s pristine physical condition, despite being thousands of years old.

“Well, if they can make wormholes, I’m certain they can also preserve their stuff pretty well,” Emma voiced her thoughts.

After a few more seconds of searching, they discovered the keycard, located in the pocket of a lab coat.

“Alright, let’s get moving. We can come back to this stuff later.”

After returning to the lab, Henry ordered his team to prepare to breach.

“Okay,” he said, holding the keycard in his hand. “On three.”

“One… two… three!”

Henry slid his hand down, making sure the keycard was in close proximity to the pad. The door slid open and Kelmithus cast his flashboom spell, incapacitating those inside. Jones sent in a less powerful version of his Air Burst Golem, which only forced the Nobians inside to the ground. Having learned his lesson, Henry made sure to stand a bit further back, so this time he wasn’t smacked in the face by Emma’s hair.

“Go! Go!”

Like before, Alpha Team breached the room with their two wizards maintaining a force shield. They scanned the room and found many dazed Nobians on the ground, groaning. With the guards in an incapacited state, Alpha Team easily subdued them and rounded them up for questioning. None of them were the Emperor.

One of the guards who was quick to recover would wish he hadn’t, for Henry walked up to him as soon as he detected a viable candidate for interrogation. Holding his N25, he aimed it at the guard and spoke.

“Where’s the Emperor?”

The guard smirked, as if Henry had already lost. “Heheh… he’s not here.”

He was telling the truth. There were no more highlighted figures throughout the complex.

“I know he’s not here. Where is he?!”

“You waste your time with meaningless talk. I know not where he is, only that he is not here.”

Henry looked visibly annoyed. He shot the man with his N25, using the lowest power setting and the Nobian fell to the floor, unconscious.

Turning to his team, he ordered them to stay and watch the subdued Nobians. “Jones, let’s go back to the surface and contact command. Lamarr, look around this place. See if there’s anything useful here.”

Emma smiled and nodded. “Will do, sir.”

Henry and Dr. Jones walked back to Section 1, where the transporter was. Along the way, they discussed the implications of the Nobians in this outpost.

“Jones, what specifically was this outpost for?”

Dr. Jones remained silent for a few seconds, communicating with Omnis. Then, he spoke. “Omnis says this outpost was one of three that were researching the gravitational anomalies of this planet. I haven’t put much thought into it, but it is a bit weird how this planet is about twice the size of Earth, but the gravity is the same.”

“Oh okay,” Henry said, relieved. “So that means there’s nothing here the Nobians could’ve used as weapons.”

“Hmm, not exactly. As we now know, science can heavily modify magic, and vice versa. This outpost had a lot of data on gravity. If the Nobians were able to figure some of it out, they may have been able to create new gravity spells.”

“That could be bad news for some of our aircraft…”

“Yeah, but at least they’re not going to bring an asteroid down on us or anything.”

“From what I’ve heard, it sounds like the Divinians might be able to do something like that, if they knew how,” Henry said.

“Hey, why don’t we tell the general that we want to stay for a bit. I’m sure Emma and I could use some extra time studying this outpost.”

“Okay, I’ll forward the request,” Henry said as they were transported back to the surface. “Command, this is Alpha Team…”