Me and the petrified kid-who, in fairness only screamed for the first 10 seconds-made an epic escape, surge jump-hopping through the streets and buildings as I carried him underarm until we found the alien looking building that he had directed me to. Low and behold, at the entrance there were heavily armoured and armed people who were defending others as they fled the monsters and rushed inside. I chipped in towards the efforts by sending a spray of surge infused shards from my shields into a chonker beastie that had a mouth on its huge, headless torso.

"BED IN THE SHIT-" One of the guards exclaimed loudly as we approached but was rudely interrupted by a familiar looking organ locust missing half its torso and head, screeching as it dove towards the armoured guard.

And that's not the only familiar thing.

The heavily armoured guard roared out as he splattered the decayed bug with an absurdly sized hammer, the size of which would have put stars in Graves eyes if he ever saw it..

“Shit bloody! I don’t believe! Ha-har! Godu has returned!” The armoured man raised his hammer and cheered. “And he’s got Syrin! Hiiyaahr!”

It was undoubtedly Rutin, the polish dude who could drink Catara under the table and also someone who would jump into a burning building to save kittens. I'd had a few chats with him in the tavern and I'd always come away with a strong boost to my morale, and a few tokens lesser..

He pointed at me as I waved, and with a grunt I leapt forwards, clearing the distance, skidding to a stop near Rutin and dropping off the pale kid, who, as it turned out was Triyas brother of all people.

No wonder Marri was risking her life for him! He’s grown up fast, wow.

"You have been missed dearly my crazy friend!-Oh Shit! MARRI is out there looking for boy! You must hurry!-OPEN UP STELLA!" He barked at the door but I waved him off as Syrin dashed towards the opening door and hugged a young girl that opened it, shouting a thousand thanks back to me.

"She's safe don't worry, although that's more than I can say for this place. It’s good to see you too mate, but there's some really bad fuckers coming, we need to get as far away as possible, and I think I can help with that, but I can't do it under this shield." I pointed up.

Human screams mixed with the inhuman pierced the sky as Rutin internally processed but looked past me.

“Hmm. We’re all inside except for a few..and Catara of course. Too stubborn that one-SHIT! Devil of the speak! STELLA GET THE OTHERS! WE HAVE WAVE INCOMING!” He bellowed out, rushing past me. I turned around and saw a wounded solo shielder stomping down the road chased by a variety of husks. Her dark purple ceremonial armour was heavily damaged and covered in gore and she was holding a black, very long jagged sword that was slightly curved. Her eyes widened and she mouthed “WTF” when she saw me but this moment of distration was poorly timed, and I cursed as one of the slithering sword-armed bastards impaled Catara from the side..She screamed out in pain. It had taken a mere second longer to recognise her as she looked rather different, but once I realised, I didn’t hesitate to slipfold into the snake, sever it’s arm with my shields and tackle it down to the ground, ending its existence with multiple attacks to the face. A landslide of horrors was heading straight for us but she was going to be absolutely fine as golden light bathed her. She forced herself back ot her feet as people streamed out of the door and I returned focus back at the monsters now only a few meres away as Rutin shouted out something glorious in polish, casting a red aura buff and that washed over me, giving me a huge boost to my energy and morale, making me feel like I could take on the entire world.

Catara bark out some hyper-violent expletives as I started cutting down the creatures vanguard and I couldn’t help but savagely grin as the floor underneath turned into a watery substance, swallowing up the extremely surprised monsters into the tarmac with blades of plasma and electricity scouring through the air into the rear of their rotting crowd, laying waste to them. I relaxed, dismissed my shields and turned around to see Steves panting, grinning face. He looked exhausted and weathered but also creepily younger.

“By the bloody naked gods and goddesses! I-it is you! You are alive! It’sdamned good to see ya man!” He held out his arms and gave me a hug that I awkwardly accepted and as I looked past him, I could see a few familiar faces along with a bunch of unfamiliar; Sylvie, Lyra, Erza were okay.

“You too mate, but there’s no time to stick around and hug. We need to get out of here, there are extremely bad things coming. I’ve already found Marri and she’s with a friend who’s taking her to Triya and-..” I paused as I saw Steve tense up at the mention of her name and I looked over the crowd who were all talking and waving at me. My gaze found Kelly, with her two young boys, she gave me a polite smile and a wave. “Tanner’s alive.” I whispered the last bit and waved back to everyone. “But we don’t have time, understand? We must go immediately.”

He sucked air through his teeth and released it with a groan. “Man that’s alot to take in. Crap. Okay let’s go speak to Sylvie..Bloody Gods shit..I’m getting the same feeling I did back then and I don’t want to be making the same mistakes..How’s the wall Catara?”

She shook her head and stared at me. “BFMs arrived. The elite platoons are being thrown in to distract, but the LTC has practically gone insane. We should prioritise our own and get the fuck out of here, immediately. This place is toast.”

We quickly moved over to the door and went inside, and after some back pats, nods and getting bear hugged by Rutin and my hair ruffled by an emotionless Catara, we entered a large hall that had a bunch of cushions and pillows spread around the outside of an otherwise empty space. I explained as briefly as possible to Sylvie and she called for everyone to listen as she relayed the information and gave me a chance to let everyone know what I could do to help get us all to safety.

My proposal was for me to head out and hopefully find somewhere safe where we could stage an escape from the dome shield and then finally open a Slipfold gateway for everyone to use, cross the barrier together and then open a final gateway back to Steves. From there, well, we had plenty of options such as Italy..but we can figure that out when we come to it.

“What about the people on the wall?”

“I have some friends still out there! Are you saying there’s no chance to save them?”

“We can’t just leave the people here to die!?”

“The estate is a wastezone! Where the fuck would we sleep?!”

“Where the fuck have you been all this time??”

“Is this ‘folding’ safe for my kids?”

There was an eruption of complaints and shouting but I didn’t have the patience nor the time. I pushed past people and placed a gateway, making a show of pointing at it and trying to yell over the objections.

“FUCKING SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO HIM!” Catara silenced everyone with a booming shout.

“I’m sorry I don’t know what to do! But I came back here to help you out. My wife and boy are out there so I need to hurry. I’m sorry but I can’t do anymore than this. Here is the gateway point; keep it clear for your own safety. I’ll come back once I find a way out.” I was angry. What do they expect me to do??..

As I made my way to the door, Catara grabbed my arm and stopped me as people resumed arguing with each other about all kinds of bullshit.

“Wait. I’m coming. I might know where we can go.” Straight to the point, no fluff. As always with Catara. Her armour looked..functional, with fractal and xeno-gothic ornamental patterns dotted around but her cleavage was very clearly on display along with her thighs, which wasn’t a problem in itself but I still noticed it along with her age reversal; she had looked 40-50 when I’d last seen her and now she looked in her mid twenties.

And where’s her big sword gone? Hmm, she really looks younger, so weird..I looked at Steve. Him too. They’re both undeniably younger. I know about the reverse aging thing but it’s still incredibly jarring to see..I wonder if Marri has gotten younger anywhere-No no no.

Stop.

Focus.

My mind and hormones were going a tad wild after being in close contact with Marri so it took a bit of mental effort to stay on track.

Steve gave a polite but hardened smile and spoke.

“Your timing is impeccable; I don’t know what the hell kicked the hornets nest here-”

Yeah sorry that was probably me.

“-but it was a long time coming..Anyways, we’ll sort things here and try and get anyone still out there safely inside. Could you perhaps bring people back here if you see any that need help? I’ll do what I can too.” He was calmer, more measured and gave the sense that he knew exactly what he was doing. There was little fear in his eyes, only concern for others. I wonder if I had it easier with the corrupted and colossals..I sighed and nodded.

“Course’ mate. Here, take this. It should help us keep in contact. Looking forward to having a nice cold quiet one after this is over. ” I held out my hand and he took it.

Successfully shared [Group Up].

He chuckled and shook his head. “Ha you must have met others then. Wow. That’s ridiculously convenient, ha. Thanks. Me too man, we’ve got a lot to catch up on, stay safe.”

I went for the door but had a thought and froze.

“Hey Steve? Does anyone know who’s doing all this? There was a Baron that I..defeated. It was a monster but it could talk.” I briefly thought of Siya and Immo. They’re not monsters.

“Ah..yeah we’ve found who it was, thanks to the special forces. They have some pretty useful scouts that can analyse you covertly and check your skills, combat logs..But yes. It was Arkly, although now he’s more monster than human. Don’t know how, but that bastard went full necro and somehow managed to split his mind into several bodies-Wait did you kill a Carrion Baron?? How did you get past the projectile reflect shield? Ah no that’s right, you would have been close quarters..But how did you resist the plague aura? It should have made you horrendously diseased and mentally insane? I’m talking terrible sores, rashes, genitals falling off..No one has even managed to get a single hit on one of the three Barons, let alone kill one!”

Arkly..Sounds familiar..Wait what falls off!?? Are you fucking joking!

I shrugged off the internal mental screaming, pretending to be cool as a cucumber. “Guess I got lucky. I better hurry okay. See you in a bit.”

Very SERIOUS note to self. You NEED to be more careful in future.

The thought of catching some kind of necro plague and having my balls drop off made my skin crawl. Catara snorted a knowing laugh and followed as I moved on.

Rutin and Stella, who I recognised as the little girl that had been chased by the grubdog way back when, were both guarding the large door, he saw us approach and peeked through gap before noddinga t us to get ready to exit.

“Povodzenia friends. Me and little pivvo here will be first to come when you open the way.” He chuckled as Stella groaned.

“Ru-ru! I told you so many times that nickname is awful!” She rolled her eyes then smiled at us as she pushed Rutin out the way and grabbed the handle. “There’s two Lizzo Scissos on the right and a Blob beater straight ahead. Be careful!” She opened the door.

“Uhh thanks.” For a 10-11 year old she was astonishingly fearless given the circumstances, but then again what else can you be in this day and age..

We exited and, sure enough, out came two of the blade-armed snakes-Lizzo Scissos, ha-and the Blob beater which was the tripod with the bulbous head-I think I’ll stick with calling them tripods, Stella..I deployed my shields into config:ribbon making Catara whistle in appreciation as she pulled out a familiar looking pipe that started to writhe with purple Majik until it burst out and solidified into the wicked long blade I saw earlier.

“Hey! Is that my-”

“Finders keepers mate. You lose rights to all worldly possessions after you jump into a demon mouths and disappear for 6 months..Speaking of which, did you go to hell? Is this the fucking rapture or something? Who was that young winged bird you came with eh?? An Angel? Cheating on me and Marri with the divine, tsk, tsk, typical MAN!!” She leapt in an arc and met one of the charging Lizzos raised blades with hers but as she connected she burst into a ghostly dark purple mist and passed right through its defensive stance and re-solidified, cleaving down into its skull, killing it in one hit.

What a way with words. I couldn’t help but laugh as I surge jumped onto the back of the tripod and held on, letting my ribbon clamp down onto its, approximate, neck whilst it somehow let out muffled screams like an egyptian mummy covered in bandages. My ribbon clacked in a uniform, satisfying way as the locking links rippled outwards towards the pincered end before a minor javelin shard was fired into it; I surfed the lifeless bulk as it collapsed to the ground.

Catara had already finished slaughtering the other Lizzo and gestured the direction she wanted to go. “Let’s stretch our legs, it shouldn’t take a minute. We’re looking for a big hangar. You can tell me all about the circles of hell, or the triangles of heaven, along the way…”

For me it was fairly trivial to jump around and outrun the monsters but for Catara it was a bit of a slog so a few times I’d been required to assist in sharding a few, meaning that it took us more than a few minutes to find the building, but in that time I’d managed to give Catara a brief overview of my not so fun adventures on the continent. We had not seen anyone alive yet.

“Hm. Sounds just as fucked over there. We’ve had a few corrupted here we’ve had to deal with, but nothing that could walk through brick walls. Here’s the hangar.” She slowed to a stop in front of a huge concrete typical hangar style building before continuing through a small doorway that had a thick submarine-like door hanging off its hinges.

“Not good." She muttered. We entered a dark reception area and it took my eyes a few seconds to adjust; it was trashed, with deep gouges in the walls and scorch marks scattered around corpses of husk monsters that littered the area; typical signs of fierce fighting. Catara tapped my shoulder and handed me a glow stick to which I took absentmindedly and cracked it on.

Oops. What a waste.. Although I suppose it will help Catara see where I am. I clipped it onto my chest pocket.

We carried on through and went through a equally trashed turnstile and into a huge open space that had pill boxes and barricades set up as if this was a paintball arena and our target was at the far end.

"Shit. Might be a waste of time. Sorry.This place is usually locked down tighter than a nuns va-”

Movement above!

“Stop! Don't FUCKING move! Hands up!"

A voice, that immediately let you know the owner was very dangerous and very serious, barked at us from above as a chorus of coil whine noises and spotlights announced that we were completely surrounded by people on the upper walkways.

With glowing railguns.

"Get that light out of my face idiot! State your own name so I know who's balls or tits I'm about to twist!" Catara surprisingly growled back with even more authority; I was greatly intimidated. There was a short pause and then what sounded like a gulp before the guy responded.

"Apologies SO Major Royal! I didn't see it was you. We've had it pretty rough down here and we've lost our scout..Uh, stand down everyone!” His tone was like a schoolkid who had just been caught looking at porn. He dropped over the rail and landed with a soft thud before rushing up and saluting Catara. “Apologies again Marm." She saluted back.

"Tch. Well, well. It's Corporal big dick. Forgiveness is earned. So unless you want me to tell all your friends about how you squeal like a schoolgirl when you come, your new assignment is escorting me and my friend here to the boffins. Immediately." She spoke loudly as I stared at Catara in shock, but she didn't give me a single glance and she strode past the poor man. He sighed quietly and started to mutter something like "but you just did.." causing Catara to stop and snap back.

"What was that Corporal?"

"I said I would be de-light-ed Maam! But there's-"

"Damn right you will be. Let's go. You can fill me in on the way." She interrupted him and continued walking.

I don't know what's going on but..poor man.

Corporal..'Big', quietly groaned and sighed a few choice mutterings to himself. "End of the bloody world and I get involved with the bloody witch-" he stiffened and glanced at me strangely before shouting up a few commands and then hurried after Catara.

Poor man..Truly. Can't wait to grill Catara about this-

As if she could read my thoughts, Catara turned back and gave me a narrow look.

..When I'm feeling brave.

There were about a dozen soldiers but only two of them came with us, including Cpl Big, and on the way he was immaculate with his briefing; likewise Catara returned an update about the wall. From what I overheard, nothing unusual had been happening aside from the flood of monsters. Catara gave the somber news about all the breaches in the wall and that it was inevitable the place was going to be overrun.

Cpl Big was understandably a bit shocked.

“Seriously? Ca-...I mean, Maam. Are you certain? What about the civs and the other platoons?”

“Yup. I don’t know. That’s up to the LTC..” She sighed. “If she’s still alive. As for the civs and other platoons, that’s why we need to speak to the science officer and why I’ve got my friend here. That’s all you need to know for now. Let’s move quickly.” It went quiet with only the sounds of footsteps as we travelled briskly down the claustrophobic, door lined hallways that sloped down. I could tell we were going deeper into the earth, and, like a nervous tic, I constantly checked to see if could still reach out to my slipfold points above ground which I still could. My mind wandered and I cursed myself internally, when I remembered I should have shared the group up skill with the soldiers we had left behind so I ended up broaching the subject to everyone and proceeded to share it with everyone present instead.

No reason not to share this right? Good for humankind, or what’s left of it.

It was amusing to see the looks people gave each other as they communicated telepathically, but I was taken aback when Catara immediately told me not mention my teleporting abilities to anyone in case they started demanding requests or someone wanted to exploit it. She also gave me a brief answer when I questioned about why she was able to order the military around, and it turned out she had been quite high up in the military a long time ago and had been re-drafted. Something she’d never mentioned.

Although what do I really know about her past?..

#Catara# Trust me, better to just keep it quiet right now. I don’t want the old world politics to start getting involved. The leadership here are borderline insane and it wouldn’t surprise me if they started trying to force you into service to the very bitter end if they knew what you were capable of. They think the old rules still apply and we don't have the time to try and convince them otherwise..Not that it matters anymore. This place is fucking doomed along with anyone stupid enough to stay behind.

It was getting noticeably hotter and I was starting to sweat, growing increasingly concerned as breathing became difficult with the stuffy air. Mercifully, we turned our last corner and entered into a fairly well lit corridor that ended with a grey wall. Once my eyes adjusted, I could see that the light sources were some kind of collection of blue glowing pebbles in nets hanging on the walls and the closer we got to bowls, the cooler it got and less stuffy.

Cpl Big walked up to the left hand side of the grey wall and approached something that looked like a plant but was also made of metals or stone.

Definitely Majik based.

“Corporal Biggs and Special Officer Major Royal with a guest, here to see the CSO.” He spoke to the plant and it pulsed with a few lights like a childs toy before firing out a blue laser that strobed over us all, scanning in a way that reminded me exactly of Xno. It made some synth noises with several chirps, just like Xno as well, and then the doors grinded open to reveal a bustling laboratory. There was a large circular main open area, kind of like a rocket launch command center, with desks and desks filled with all random things. Then around the circle there were rooms with thick glass windows, like observation rooms, with people doing tests with Majik and I even spotted a few rooms holding live monsters; including a live slenderman that was just slowly rubbing its face on the window in a slow circle; its barely existent lips dragging across the transparent surface, leaving behind a skidmark of saliva.

That is the creepiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen.

#Catara# There some seriously nerdy scientists and researchers down here. Moreso than Steve. They are the only reason this place was able to stay shielded for so long. They’ve been working non stop trying to figure things out and they’ve figured out some interesting stuff and also some..fucked up shit. The tech they’re using is all Majik based which is impressive on its own.

Indeed they were using things that looked like microscopes and devices that fired out blue lasers that would strobe over things, presumably scanning them.

“WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING DOWN HERE?!” A very angry man wearing round glasses and a typical lab coat shouted from across the room. Catara softly spoke to Cpl Big, Uh I mean Biggs, and said something that puzzled me.

“Remember where your loyalty lies, Bryant.”

He squinted with suspicion, and then side eyed the angry man storming towards them; seemingly connecting some dots.

“HELLO??? Are you deaf? What are you all doing down here? This is a highly restricted area! Shouldn’t you be up top pacifying the terrors trying to tear down our walls?!”

Catara waited before coldly responding.“Hello CSO Richards. The walls defenses are being breached. It’s over. I came down here because I need to get this man to the old MT tunnels. He-”

“NONSENSE! Those shields are impenetrable!!” Richards interrupted her, practically scoffing. “Do you realise the force required to break through would be ten times greater than the hiroshima bomb? Pah. Nevermind. I forget we live in impossible times..Regardless, I’m sorry, but protocol states I need to detain you until clearance is cleared from the Lieutenant colonel. I’m going to have to kindly ask you and your friend to wait in the holding lounge. Corporal Biggs, please escort them and then report back to me. And Catara, go quietly. Don’t make me resort to primitive measures.” He spoke my name with contempt but didn’t even so much as glance my way.

There was an awkward moment of silence as Biggs looked back and forth from Richards to Catara.

“Ss-sir-” He started but Catara interrupted him.

“With all due respect Richards, go fuck yourself. Biggs isn’t your grunt and we don’t have time for this. If you don’t listen to me you’re all going to die, but that’s up to you. Just show us where the Tunnel is and we’ll be on our way.”

Richards took on a grim smile. “Primitive. Arrest them.”

Uhoh.

My senses went haywire as two stealthed military personel holding railguns materialised and were highlighted in red hues. From behind Richards, several smaller Xno type orbs appeared and reconstructed themselves into turrets configurations, also highlighted in red. My instincts took over and I deployed my shields in config:prime and snapped them forward defensively before the stealthed military soldiers had uttered their first sylable.

”O-”

Whether it was the flurry of my activity or they were planning to shoot me from the get-go, one of the soldiers fired off a shot that slammed into my shield, an attack that would have dealt massive damage if it had hit me directly, but thankfully my shield absorded the impact at the cost of a small chunk of my resources.

Ouch, -10%.

“-N THE FUCKING GRO-” I didn’t even give him a chance to finish as I phase dashed through the next shot, grabbed soldier A’s weapon whilst blocking another shot from his buddy at point blank-”WOA SHI-”and booted soldier A square in the chest, sending him flying into a wall with a thwack, leaving his weapon comically spinning in the air; the remaining soldier swung his weapon up at me.

Too slow.

My shields synth growled as they cut soldier B’s weapon in half with a pincer attack. He stared in confusion at his broken weapon before I slammed him into the ground with a shield and pinned him with my forearm and held the newly acquired railgun up impotently, I-..think I’m holding the barrel end..The turrets started to make charging up noises, but then Catara pulled out the sword that rapidly materialized as she exploded into a mist and reappeared beside them, swiping one down and then putting the blade up to Richards yelping face. Biggs and his team member raised their weapons and took aim at the orbs and a couple of other soldiers that had appeard out of nowhere and rushed forward.

“STAND DOWN. NOW.” Catara bellowed out. She was extremely intimidating, so much so that I nearly dropped the gun I was holding. I glanced down at the absurd piece of technology and a small part of my lizard brain briefly squealed with excitement. “I’m holding an actual railgun, put it in your pocket! Keep it”

The orbs powered down.

“I c-concede! Please! Everyone stand down!” He held his hands up, having the courage completely drained from him but staring at me with a wild look of..Adoration?..creepy.

The other soldiers lowered their weapons, confused at what was happening.

“Bloody stupid idiot! How can someone so educated be so fucking stupid. CSO Richards I’d normally place you under arrest but I don’t have the bloody time. Tell us where the tunnel is and then go let your staff know they can come with us if they want to survive.”

“You’re truly serious about the wall, heavens..W-w-ait! The tunnels are not safe and…” He looked at me with shock and a weird look of awe at my shields. “You need to tell me who this man is, he could be the key and it is imperative that I talk to him! Even if we have little time!”

Catara looked at me with a raised eyebrow and I shrugged standing up, releasing the shocked soldier and reigning my shields close to my back. “Whatever you think I am, I doubt-”

“Please just give me 5 minutes! I need to show you something, I swear you will understand once you see!” His eyes were bulging with madness.

Reluctantly, I handed over the gun to the soldier and considered the man. My initial thoughts were to punch him until he just did as we said, and, although I longed to get back to Marri, it had already been around 30 minutes since I’d seen her which was 30 minutes too long, I was still curious as to why he was so eager.

What does my gut say-

(!)SEV ? TASK TX(!)

Come. Alone.

!!!!

My blood went cold and goosebumps rippled across my skin.

Can’t ignore that….F-

“Please Sir!” He was desperate.

“Y-yeah okay, 5 minutes.” I looked at Catara. “Is that okay?”

“Sounds fucking weird to me but whatever. 5 minutes. And Richards, we’re supposed to be on the same team. Understood? I’m going to invite your staff to come with us, I don’t want to hear any-”

“No objections! I stand completely down! You have full authority to do as you wish. My security staff will lead you to the team lead. Mendez go pick up Charles and escort Miss Royal to where she needs to go, do exactly what she says.”

Catara looked as surprised as the security staff, but motioned for Briggs to follow and they briskly moved off. Meanwhile my anxiety was sweating out of my pores.

Why do I feel like I’m about to meet my maker? Are they watching me? Where exactly does it want me to go? And alo-

“Please hurry this way Mr…” He rushed over to a door that had his name on it and motioned for me to follow.

“Oh, uh, Goduyne.”

“It is an honour.” He waved for me to enter and after a quiet deep breath, I did.

Bloody hell what am I doing..Marri will be safe with Siya, but for how long!!

We went into a tidy office that had whiteboards, dark wooden book shelves filled with various books and a few objects, and finally a large desk with papers spread out.

“So I would normally give you a spiel about how ‘what I’m about to say is cosmic secret and is to be taken to your grave bla-bla ha!..But I guess it wouldn’t do much harm since this must be the end times.” He sighed and moved behind his desk.

“There’s no government left Goduyne, as you’ve probably already guessed. Only fragmented public services and a few military installations but it seems that it’s just impossible to live in large groups anymore, at least not in any of the existing infrastructure..It attracts too many anomalies and desperate people, and, strategically it is impossible to defend against this new age of warfare, seemingly even with physics breaking, electromagnetic plasma fields..” He muttered while taking his glasses off and massaged his nose, motioning to the chair opposite for me to sit and once I did he follow suit and rummaged around in his desk.

“But beside all that, I want you look at something, and honestly I cannot believe I’m about to show you this..do tell me if you spot anything that, resonates, shall we say.” He passed over a document folder that had the words PRETERGHAST PROJECT on the front. I opened it up and there were photographs and various documents, with the photographs showing a large, smooth, black..Egg? Boulder? Why does it look familiar..The room it was in seemed to be a brightly lit plain white room with cameras and other unfamiliar bits of equipment connected to it and the object looked roughly the size of a shipping container. I moved to another photo and it showed a close up of the objects surface covered in shapes and lines. The next photo was from the same perspective but the surface had changed, and the next was the same, and the next and the next. A series of photos showing the same section of the object but with different patterns and glyphs.

It’s like looking at..I don’t even know. What is the purpose of seeing this? Is it alien? Manmade?

I felt sick and uneasy.

“What is this? It..does feel familiar but I don’t know why?” Confused, I looked up at Richards, who smiled with a fond nostalgic look in his eye.

“The story was told to me by my parents who lived and died on this base. You see, I’ve lived here my whole life; I was born here and I expected to die here. A much longer tale..but I’ll shorten it for the fullness of time. It starts with a place called Heligoland..”

He went into a story about an island in the north sea called Heligoland that, during world war II was used as a German naval fortress against allied forces but, in 1945, the German forces lost the island and British forces then proceeded to occupy it. Then, exactly two years later in 1947, the British navy decided it best to destroy the island, both to dispose of unwanted military gear as well as to level the fortress building. So they ended up detonating a huge stockpile of munitions and explosives, creating the biggest non-nuclear conventional explosion in history.

“Although, that’s only the official story in the history books. Pah, anyone with half a brain could figure out that was just a facade. The real story is much more sinister and life changing..”

The true story was that the British forces did indeed occupy the island, but they found a sealed mineshaft that led down to a strange cave system that was halfway developed into an underground facility of somesort. Seemingly abandoned halfway, they carefully explored the facility until they came across the object and immediately thought it was a nuclear weapon of some kind. Researchers were brought in to try and reverse engineer it, including Richards Grandfather, but after many failed attempts to even put a scratch on it, they decided it best to destroy it, along with the rest of the island. And yet, even after this massive explosion, to their absolute shock it still remained intact whilst the island was obliterated.

This object was codenamed: Preterghast.

“Not a single captured German official knew about it, nor were any other records found. In the end, they had to excavate it underwater and tow it back via submarine, because here’s the kicker, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t pull it up or drag it lower. It was locked on a specific altitude so in order to bring it back here, they had to drag it through the Thames and then a few covertly built tunnels, contracted under the pretense of nuclear material movement. Oh the longer story is so much more..But alas we don’t have time. Come.” He stood up and moved over to one of the whiteboards and shifted it aside, revealing a submarine looking door. My stomach was churning and I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be here-what the fuck is my life-he touched one of the metallic weird plants that illuminated and hummed before turning the wheel mechanism and opening the very thick door with little effort. Inside was the familiar white room, illuminated by-

Holy shit. It’s right there. And it has changed shape!

The black objects surface was rippling and shifting, but it’s main shape had changed from the ovoid egg shape, into a ‘V’ with a slimmer oval ‘body’ going down the middle; in a sense, it looked like a living creature; something slightly resembling a black hawk moth with inverted wings. There were twiglike growths modulating on the top of the oval body and on each of the edges of the inverted wing structures there were jagged trellis’.

The whole of it’s surface is crawling..just like-

“Look at your, shields. Or, weapons, if that’s what you call them. T-the ones on your back!” He stuttered with excitement. Slowly, I brought one forward in front of me.

It..what the actual fuck. It’s the EXACT same material. What does it mean? Is it all..connected?

“You See! So much has been uncovered and learned from this artefactoid, and yet so much more remains unknown..Congratulations Goduyne, you are now a part of a handful of people in history that have ever seen this. Not even most world leaders know about this things existence. Ha, although this probably pales in comparison to some of the absurd wonders that have occurred since the disintegration, but it’s all connected..Yes, far too many coincidences to ignore now..It was only in the last decade we realised the shifting surface and patterns are not some kind of language or diagram after we shifted our thinking, and we finally came to an understanding that it is purely the organisms natural processes! We don’t know who, or what made it, but you’ll be shocked to hear it is most certainly native to our world; We don’t know if it was constructed or some kind of primordial evolution, but it is estimated to have been here since around after the dinosaurs went extinct. After painstaking research we managed to decipher bits and pieces of it and bridge the gap between our understanding of our quaternary based genetics to its Senary based genes. To put it in laymens terms, our genes have four bases, ACGT and they come in specific pairs to make up our genetic code; A always pairs to T and G always pairs to C. This has 6 completely new bases and are in constant mutation! It is absurd! Each ‘cell’ is a nucleus with a hexagonal structure comprised of a top and bottom layer connected via strong bonds of hexinary gene code pillars, sandwiching a middle layer made up of time crystal, and it is this layer where the cells seemingly pull a new gene code layer out of nothing to replicate, repair or to reconfigure. We still don’t know how all of that is possible.”

That was laymens terms?!!

He paused and chuckled to himself. “Can’t figure that out even though recently we finally figured out what gravity is..Ha! To think that Gravity is simply a masses energy potential divided by its total existence time potential, of course we should think in 4 dimensions instead of 3! Since spacetime is nothing but antimatter jello! Ha-ha-ha..”

Frowning I side eyed him.

“It has changed shape?” I said.

“Ah-ahem. Yes. And now we come to the final part of our story. Around 19 months ago, after countless attempts, we finally made our greatest breakthrough, one that was..well, it did change everything. We successfully created a hexinary based artifical organism that could interface with our binary based computer systems. Sigura, we called her, based on the 6 artificial nucleobases we developed; Sereni, Iozyl, Gwynirite, Ufinon, Rybint and Alycrix..I nurtured those bases and fed those newborn cells like a father..it was like the children I never had, and the things it could have accomplished..If only this hellish disaster hadn’t befallen us. She very well could have offered a solution to opening that, and helping us, of course..”

Artificial organisms and ancient artefacts. This is some crazy shit..and I’m someone who can teleport.

“It was an organism that, even though it was only a handful of cells, was capable of communication, incredibly memory and problem solving. It was a true artificial sentience and we watched it learn and think for herself..But, and there’s always a but right? When we finally connected Sigura to the purpose built computational platform for my precious child to finally be able to talk..this..anomaly occurred, vapourising her cells. Completely dead. Gone. And immediately after, we were befallen with the disintegration and mutation disaster. Some say the timing is absurdly impeccable to be a coincidence, but personally, based on what little information we’ve gathered, I’m convinced all this nightmare has come from out there, not from down here…Rest in peace, my little Sigura..” He wiped a tear from his face and looked up at the black ominous artefact. “The preterghast too, reacted instantaneously, shifting into this form, possibly to protect itself against whatever radiation or cosmic anomaly befell us..We were SO close Godu, we wanted to build technology that would have protected the human race into infinity! Into the stars and heavens, safeguarding our species place in this cold and bitter universe!”

My head reeled from all the information, most of which I didn’t fully understand but there was one thing I understood.

He’s lost his marbles. And THAT thing is..Eldritch. Like staring at a black hole and suddenly realising it’s getting bigger and bigger. Inevitable obliteration.

There was silence as I stared at the Preterghast, quietly floating there.

…

Right. Enough. 5 fucking minutes is up, time to wrap this existential bullshit up and get on with my life.

There wasn’t much to give Richards. Maybe this thing was sending out tasks and protecting humanity against something else, but I sure as shit didn’t know. I turned to Richards who was sighing and chuckling bitterly to himself. “So..what do you want me to do here Richards? Try and commune with it? Slap it with my shields? Or can I go now please-”

“Precisely. Yes. Everything and anything. This has been my entire career-nay, my whole life! And that of my parents! I need to know what is inside it. Please Goduyne, please try. That’s all I ask and even if we achieve nothing, at least I can go in peace.”

Right. Fine by me. Is what I told myself but my knees were shaking as I walked up to it and slowly extended and raised up my shields over my shoulders, pointy sides facing forwards; the mantis stance. There was no hum or buzzing sounds emanating from the artefactoid, and right before I was about to have a stab with my shields, I gave it a bit more intellectual thought and decided maybe it would be rather sensible to try and communicate first.

All those movies where I’m screaming at the screen ‘DO NOT FUCKING TOUCH THE ALIEN TECH!’..I’m not that ‘stoopid’...

“Right well, Hello."

...

The silence made me feel stupid.

"Uh, if you can hear me, can you open up-OH SHIT-”

To my bone chilling horror..

It did.