Cyia always hated pulling night duty out at the warehouse, especially as it always seemed to be assigned to them. Somehow they’d managed to piss off one of the captains back in the main compound and ever since? Night watch. It was always the same; wander around their assigned portion of the perimeter with some other poor sap who was out of favor at the time. Tonight was looking to be exactly the same, and Cyia was just counting the minutes until they could head back inside, when out of the light mist loomed two figures.

Alex motioned to the guard on the left for Whitt to take out whilst he moved right. Before either figure was able to utter a sound, they had been restrained and dragged back up the hill out of sight.

Once he was sure they were back far enough Alex propped the pair of guards up against a tree and squatted down in front of them. “Good evening. My name is Alex, and I’m here to break into this warehouse.” He didn’t bother trying to hide his purpose, already beyond tired of playing games.

“What my friend and I would like to know is what the state of play is inside. Are there more guards?” The guards looked at each other before the slightly smaller of the 2 started making noise around the cloth in their mouth. “I don’t want to make threats, but if I take this out and you try to yell? I won’t kill you, but I sure as hell will pop you in the mouth.” Alex gave a small smile as he reached over and removed the gag.

The smaller guard immediately started babbling out word-soup, and Alex had to shush them a few times until he was able to make out the beginnings of sentences.

“B..break into the warehouse? Why? There's nothing out here! We never get to go inside, but as far as I’m aware it’s just an empty warehouse that we are made to ‘guard’ as punishment…” Small guard stammered.

Alex mulled that over for a second before responding. “Empty warehouse hmm? That seems a little… strange to me. Sure, you might not go in there, but surely you don’t expect me to believe that?”

“Seriously! I have been on this duty more than just about anyone else, and I have never seen anything going in and out. Once or twice a year a group goes in, does something, and then leaves over the course of a week or so. The rest of the time? Nothing!” Chatty guard blurts.

Alex was bemused at how willing the guard was to talk, having expected some resistance. “Why are you telling me this so readily? If you’re trying to get me to walk into a trap I can tell you that whatever you say I will be going in to look.” Alex tried a slightly more blatant line of questioning, looking over his shoulder to see Whitt also confused by the situation.

“I already told you. All of us out here are here on some form of punishment. I’m not going to risk my neck withholding information from someone who could obviously take it from me if needed… My name is Cyia, and I hate it here. I don’t even remember what I did to piss off my captain back in town, but I’ve been stuck here ever since. I don’t know what’s inside, but I can tell you that none of the guards here will be able to stop you getting in if that's really what you want. We are just here to stop the odd wildlife incursion and keep the pathways clear.” Cyia attempted to shrug.

Alex looked at the other guard who had remained remarkably quiet throughout the conversation so far. “And you? Same story?” He reached over and pulled the gag loose.

The guard flexed their jaw before giving a curt nod. “Yeah, pretty much. I wouldn’t have told you as much as this prat, but they’re telling the truth. This is just where the ‘undesirables’ get placed to stop us from gaining any levels towards our release at level 100. I’m here because I asked where one of my friends had gone, and wouldn’t just accept what they said.”

Alex looked back at Whitt. “Any of this ring true with what you know? They both seem genuine, but this all seems too… easy?”

Whittaker gave a slow nod, “What they say does track with what I know used to happen with ‘problem’ soldiers. Hell, one of my squad got sent somewhere similar once for failing to keep on top of their weapon maintenance. It’s usually just some dead-end assignment for a few weeks to ‘encourage’ more personal responsibility. Coming back and seeing your friends all higher levelled than you sucks.”

Alex was satisfied that this was basically seen as the equivalent of being sent to Antarctica back on his Earth. “Okay then. Is there a way we can get the other soldiers to just stand down? I don’t want to hurt anyone if I don’t have to.”

Cyia tried to wipe the look of shock off their face before they responded. “I mean… If Gul and I are with you, they should wait long enough for you to explain why you’re here…” Cyia nodded at the other guard when they said their name.

Gul chimed in, “They might, but if the Sarge orders them to attack you, they probably will. If you hadn’t shown me that you aren’t here to harm us I probably would.”

Alex nodded. “Okay, if you’re both willing to accompany my friends and I back down there on the off-chance that it can prevent a fight, I will gladly accept. You’re both walking up front though. I don’t trust you enough to leave you behind me” He chuckled, knowing Whitt would have kicked his ass if he hadn’t said that.

Alex sent Whitt back to the rest of the group to fill them in and bring them down so they could all go into the warehouse. In less than 5 minutes they were all assembled with Cyia and Gul at the front. They all walked back down to the warehouse, cautious of the potential welcoming party awaiting them.

As they neared the spot where Alex and Whitt had ambushed the guards, they slowed down. Waiting there for them was a crowd of soldiers with their weapons held ready. Someone pushed their way forward and began to address Alex and co.

“Gul, Cyia, what are you doing with these… traitors?” The person Alex assumed was the Sergeant spat.

“Sarge, they just want to take a look inside the warehouse. They don’t want to harm or attack any of us. They could have just as easily killed us both, but they didn’t…” Cyia began.

The Sargeant scoffed. “Of course it would be you that sticks up for the filth… Have you paid no attention to what the council has sent on these… traitorous scum? Or are you willingly siding against your own?”

Cyia visibly took a step back under the intensity of this rebuke before coming back with “Sarge, I know you hate it out here as much as the rest of us! The Council doesn't care about any of us! None of us actually did anything to really warrant us being stuck out here…”

“Enough! Obviously they have corrupted you to their ignoble cause… Gul, unless you want to be on the receiving end of the same I suggest you get over here.” The Sargeant glared daggers at Gul. Gul was visibly wavering and started to walk away from Alex’s group.

Alex decided he had had enough. “Listen to me. Cyia spoke true. My friends and I do NOT wish to fight with you. We just want to take a look inside and then be on our way! But if you attack us, we WILL retaliate…”

The soldiers arrayed before them began to fidget. They knew what was about to be ordered, but like Cyia, none of them had any real love for the Council.

The Sargeant let out a barking laugh. “You really believe you stand a chance here? You are outnumbered, and outmatched in level, so just surrender and we will only maim you a little before handing you over to the Council. Soldiers, take aim!”

Alex heard the order and quickly swept his gaze over the force in front of him, taking in their levels and getting an accurate number of foes.

Fridigian Soldier lvl 61

Fridigian Soldier lvl 61

Fridigian Soldier lvl 68

Fridigian Soldier lvl 74

Fridigian Soldier lvl 71

Fridigian Sargeant lvl 85

Gul lvl 62

Cyia lvl 65

There were a few others at the back he couldn’t make out, but in total there were 14 soldiers arrayed in front of him including Gul and Cyia. Most showed faces of uncertainty at the order, but the Sargeant and a few of the higher levelled soldiers had looks of fierce determination. He had no illusions as to whether he and his friends would win, but any injuries here would only delay the mission. Taking a half-step back Alex raised his hands.

“Sargeant, would you open to a one-on-one, you and me? Surely with your higher level you wouldn’t be afraid of a little low level like me, right?” Alex decided to inflame the Sargeant’s ego and bait him into a fight without causing collateral damage.

Face red at the insinuation in front of their troops, the Sargeant again let out a harsh laugh. “You are brave Outsider. You know what? I accept your foolish challenge. I may finally garner enough favour to get reassigned from this shithole posting if I take the council your battered corpse.”

Alex smirked internally, trap taken hook line and sinker. Keeping his face passive, Alex gestured for his friends to step back whilst the Sargeant did the same. Stepping forward, Alex ‘slipped’ and stumbled as he made his way opposite his opponent. Some of the soldiers let out snickers as they saw what Alex wanted them to see. Once in position, Alex simply waited for the Sargeant.

Unable to resist getting another jab in, Alex’s opponent jeered, “You really have bitten off more than you can chew with me boy! I’ll let you have the first blow, if you can even coordinate yourself to manage that!”

‘What a moron’ Alex thought. He just handed me an easy win without even knowing what I can do… Alex merely gave a polite nod before launching into action.

Before anyone had even had time to register he had started, Alex Charge Jumped around his foe. He swept their legs out from under them and then landed a bone shattering blow that put the Sergeant into the floor. He had specifically not equipped his weapons, as he didn’t want to kill them. He wanted to show that he really didn’t want them as his enemies, but still show that he wasn’t to be taken lightly.

Glad for the sparring with Whitt earlier, Alex found his new strength almost intoxicating. He found himself easily able to plan his moves and chain together his blows so that they didn’t cause excess damage. With calculated blows Alex hit joints and pressure points that Whitt had drilled into him. Within 2 seconds Alex had pummelled the Sergeant with tens of blows. Then, similar to his sparring with Whitt earlier, Alex launched himself up into the air out of retaliation range and pulled the ground up around the splayed limbs of his opponent.

From his vantage point up in the air Alex took in the faces of everyone arrayed below. His friends all had knowing smiles but the soldiers, including Gul and Cyia, all had looks ranging from pure shock to the beginnings of horror at the speed at which Alex had managed to incapacitate their leader.

After another few seconds the spell was broken and they rushed to check on their downed Sargeant. Alex superhero landed with a crash and slowly made his way over to his foe.

“As you can see, I could have EASILY killed you but didn’t. I meant it when I said I didn’t want to fight you, but as you insisted at least this way nobody else needs to get hurt.” Alex spoke softly, but there was a steel in his words. He wanted them all to hear that if they tried anything he would take it farther.

Unable to move, the Sargeant gave Alex a look reminiscent of a deer in headlights. “How… I’m nearly 20 levels above you and have been in the Fridigian forces for more than 5 years! You were so fast, but you pulled every punch after the first. You spare me when I would have happily killed you were the positions reversed…” They trail off, stirrings of shame igniting.

“I don’t care about protracted battles. You were so preoccupied with posturing for your troops that I easily slipped in. Had you been paying attention you could have drawn that out for far longer.” Alex replied simply. He had no need to boast.

Backing away, Alex released his hold on the earth and the Sergeant’s limbs came free. They were helped gingerly to their feet as they stood facing Alex.

“Nexian, I thank you for showing me the error of my judgement. You say you wish to look inside this warehouse? I am sure you have already been told that it is empty?” The Sergeant looked at Cyia as they said this, causing them to shrink away a little. “Well, it isn’t. I know not what is actually in here, but it draws on a huge amount of power.”

Turning and leading Alex towards a set of gleaming metal stairs attached to the side of the building and ending at an imposing looking doorway. As they reached the door, the Sargeant pointed at a panel.

“None of us has the clearance to get past this lock, and I am sure we have all tried it at least once.” There were some nervous chuckles at this.

Alex turned to look at Yas and Zerath. “Reckon you two can get us through this? If you can’t I’m sure I can find a way to force the door, but I would rather leave less evidence of our presence if possible.”

The two of them stepped up and began inspecting the panel. Yas began pulling various of their Class tools from their bag and soon the panel was hooked up to a number of devices, none of which Alex had any idea about.

After a few minutes of intense concentration, Zerath tapped something on one of the devices and stepped back. “Come on Yas, you can do it! We only have a few more seconds before the alarm triggers…”

Everyone assembled flinched as they heard those dreaded words. “Alarm? Zer, the whole point of you two doing this was so we didn’t trigger an alarm…” Alex breathed, irritation colouring the words.

Yas let out a low growl as they smacked their palm against the panel. It wavered between red and green for a moment before flashing green. The lock clicked and the door swung outwards. ‘Good Evening Gaet’ was visible on the panel for a moment before the system reset.

“That was far harder than I expected…” Yas grumbled, “It was a full DNA sequencer inside the panel. Once Zer had tripped the primary disengage sequence only Council level clearance could open the lock. Luckily my glove still had a bit of Gaet on it.”

Alex was torn between relief and repulsion at the fact that Yas still hadn’t washed their gloves since the previous day. “Well, good work. Now let's get in and see what could possibly require this level of clearance.”

The now expanded group all entered the door and found themselves in a plush office with windows that looked out onto the main warehouse floor. Alex headed straight over and looked out.

Suspended from the rafters were hundreds upon hundreds of pods similar to what he had been in to undergo his connection. Inside each one a barely visible Fridigian could be seen.

The others slowly came and stood beside Alex as they collectively took in the scene before them. Out of every possibility Alex had envisioned, this certainly wasn’t what he had expected. What the hell was going on here? Nieve was the first to break the silence.

“This is… barbaric! What the fuck is going on here?” They whirled and squared up to the still limping Sergeant.

The Sergeant had the same look of repulsed awe on their face as everyone else. “I honestly don’t know. I don’t think anyone apart from the Captains and Councillors knows what’s inside this warehouse… Although it does explain why they wanted us in particular to be the ones who guard it. Who better to guard a secret warehouse than the soldiers desperate to make their way back into the good graces.”

Nieve didn’t look completely convinced, but stepped away and turned back to the window. Without looking they asked,

“Yas, what are they using these pods for? Can you tell?”

“Not from up here, sorry Nieve. If I can get to examine the pod’s controls I can run a basic ‘nostics sweep?”

Eyes full of fury, Nieve simply nodded before walking over to the internal door and kicking it off its hinges causing everyone's heads to spin and look at them questioningly. Nieve simply walked through the now open door and headed downstairs towards the nearest pod.

Shrugging, Alex motioned everyone else to follow after them before turning to examine the rest of the room. He was looking for anything that could be useful. Heading over to a desk in the corner he began going through the drawers and tipping them out onto the floor, no longer bothered about covering his tracks. Let them know I know he thought.

Rifling through the assorted papers, Alex realised he was unable to make head nor tail of what he was reading. The only thing he could pick out was that there was a secondary internal structure towards the opposite side of the warehouse, and inside it was something referred to as ‘Primaris’. In the drawer along with this was a weirdly shaped Fros-steel colder than anything Alex had encountered so far. So cold that it actually burnt his hand as he brushed his fingers over it. Wrapping it in one of the bits of fabric he had used as a gag earlier he slipped it into his pocket and headed to find the others downstairs.

Alex came up behind the group as they all crowded around Yas examining the nearest pod. “Any luck down here yet?” he questioned.

Whittaker came to stand by him. “Not yet, but Yas has almost finished running their scan. Zerath is just over there examining the cabling to see if they can figure out what it could be used for.”

As Alex was about to respond, Yas let out a little triumphant note before their face fell and they let out a shriek.

Alex sprang forward immediately. “Yas what is it? What’s up?”

Turning slowly, Yas looked Alex in the eye. “It’s what you thought, but so… so much worse… These pods are sustaining the occupants, but also draining them to provide bio-energy for something…”

“What I thought? What do you mean?” He queried, mind racing through all of his theories to try and work out what they meant.

“The Council, or whatever is puppeteering the Council has never been returning those that reached level 100 to their families. They’ve been bringing them here and either converting them or putting them in these pods…”

Alex reeled at this. There were upwards of a thousand pods in this warehouse, and even if only 50-60% of them were occupied, that was still a huge amount of bodies to go missing. “Surely these people’s families would have noticed if they weren’t getting returned Yas?”

Tears in their eyes, Yas sobbed. “Alex… we have no families… The Council have been ‘resetting’ us like they did with Zerath. There are no civilian Fridigians any longer according to what I can make out. All of our memories are implanted. This cycle of resetting us has been going on for over 500 years…” Yas petered into uncontrollable sobs.

Around them, everyone had heard Yas’ explanation and were now in various states of shock and disbelief. Nieve and Eira came forward and each wrapped an arm around Yas, their own faces a rictus of pain and grief.

Alex didn’t know what to say to help his friends. He had no way of understanding the pain they were all sharing, and he began to ball his fist in rage at the feeling of impotence building in him. Needing an outlet, he walked over to a wall and began to throw punch after punch into it.

“Mother…” SLAM “FUCKING!” SLAM “PIECES!” CRUNCH “OF SHIT!” Alex enunciated each word with another punch. These people were his friends. In the space of a week or so he had grown closer to them than some of his oldest friends back home. And now they were in pain he couldn’t help with, at the hands of whomever or whatever was also putting his own universe at risk. Something inside him finally let go. No longer was he going to try for a peaceful resolution. If anyone sided with the Council, they would get one warning before he removed them by force.

Turning back to his friends, tears of rage making tracks down his cheeks, Alex made his way back towards Yas. “Yas, I know you’re in pain, and I am so truly sorry for that, but are you able to free these people?”

Yas hiccuped and wiped their face. “I… I think so, yes. It will take me a little while, but if Zerath helps I should be able to reverse whatever protocols are in place keeping these pods locked down.”

Alex nodded and flashed a small smile at them. “Whenever you feel ready, please let these poor people out.” Turning to Nieve and Eira he said, “Would you be okay with helping those released come to terms with what's happened to them? You both managed to help me so much when I got here, and I’m sure these people will need friendly encouragement to begin the process of recovering.”

Both of them gave their assent before Eira asked, “Alex, what are you going to do? You made that sound like you wouldn’t be here?”

“I’ll be nearby, but I found something upstairs that I want to check out, and hopefully it will give me a chance to hit something and be useful.” Alex replied, turning to the Sergeant and Whittaker. “Would either of you like to accompany me in finding out what ‘Primaris’ is?”

“Count me in Alex. Like you I could really do with hitting something right now, and you will likely need some backup when you inevitably get yourself neck deep in some shit…” Whitt grinned.

The Sergeant watched the two for a moment before answering. “I would be honoured to assist you both, as my minor injuries are mostly healed now.” Turning to their squad, “Would any of you also like to accompany our new friend Alex on this task? This is not an order, as some of you are undoubtedly feeling pretty shaken.”

Every soldier present took a step forward and readied their weapons before giving a collective assent, and like that, Alex had himself a group ready to follow him into whatever was coming behind the closed area.