We were clearing the base with even more haste now. This base held the knowledge of a interstellar civilization. We know they had accessed FTL, but how and using what method. We know it was gravity related, and hopefully, this tech would give rise to The Infinite Councils.

I shot round after round, killing everything that stood in my way. I turned the corner of the metallic hallways, slashing a Chitin in two that was there. I kept running, however, dropped a wire grenade that would slash out with wires moving extremely fast, cutting them apart. I progressed into a large room that was circular, and full of baddies. They were getting pumped up or something, with a crowd standing around a commander. I launched the new micro missiles I’d picked up from the temporary base that we’d set up. It ripped through the crowd, with them barely having time to acknowledge my presence. I continued on, barreling through a lone runner in scientist attire. I shot the two guards outside the door to the lab only a minute later, and slid in. There was around 20 techs, and they all turned towards me, ready for battle. They each held a small fire-launcher, and shot it at me. That was a more regular weapon, a gun that launched mini fireballs that burned far, FAR hotter than they should. The shots splashed against my shields, and I launched a few chain lightning attacks, taking out most of them. The remaining ones I launched into the air with some hastily conjured magic whirlwinds. They slammed into the metal wall behind them. As the Chitin techs slumped to the ground, dead, I finished off any that weren’t. I immediately asked for reinforcements to help hold the lab. I started filtering through the files of the experiments that had been occurring here. This base held extremely vital information. The Alliance had poured heaps of their economy into this base, with it being on top of a mountain that had caverns containing various spatial anomalies.

They, fortunately, were super paranoid, and didn’t tell the rest of the empire their discoveries through normal means like Hoiper beams or anything. They didn’t even use RADIO. They had a courier come, once a year(because they worried if they sent on more frequently enemies might notice), and take all the information. The courier hadn’t come in 8 months, and the amount of knowledge we were getting here was insane. We get half the info here, and we get a technological advantage on just about everyone else. They hadn’t made too many insane discoveries, but combined with what we already knew, we were developing insane things already.

My eyes scanned the blue screens that held the knowledge I was desperately looking for. My fingers tapping and sliding across the alien controls. Then, I found it. A Knox folder, a folder protected with encryptions and passwords, and viruses galore. I took my personal AI friend Jerry, and set him loose by plugging the small bar into the side of the monitor.

“What do I do?” Jerry said with his personalized avatar standing up tall, excited. He loved a good challenge, and these Know folders were a favorite. “Can I ruin everything? Just slash apart code? Maybe even screw with their cyber defences here and cause hell for the floors below?” He was also a junkie for causing chaos, like me.

“Go right ahead pal. Just take a copy of the Knox folder and send it back to base.”

“Yeeeeeeeeee-haaaaaaaaaw!” he shouted, then disappeared as he began to fuck with the enemy.

“Hehehehehehehehehehehehehe” I cackled as he went to work. I ran out of the lab, and began my way up the base, passing by one more battalion which I systematically slaughtered. I got back to the ground base, and got a good rest. I may be underscoring how amazing this all is. Everytime we get a Knox folder, we get smarter. We’re already tampering with a few prototypes for some crazy war machines, but, and here’s the kicker, we figured out FTL. We were building a navy, but, there’s a reason no one can leave Infinity. Occasionally through the sky you can see them, but when we launched a satellite to get a better idea of the terrain, the Space-Spectres obliterated it. Then we sent one to kill them, and it worked, but more just kept on coming. They were huge worms, with large fins and enormous appendages. They were about a mile long, and we counted them in the thousands while we were up there, but far more were expected to reside in the large amount of space around Infinity. With this tech, we might be able to kill them, and finally, leave Infinity.