Chapter 09-03

“Whose idea was it to walk up this damn hill for a mission that we have no idea about?” Obsidian asked about ten minutes into the walk.

“Quit complaining. I have a good feeling about this mission.” Alex said rolling his eyes. Even with the upgraded suit he could still feel some of the cold seeping through from the air.

“Fine, but you owe me.” Obsidian said.

“Yeah, yeah. You are getting paid.” Alex said in a huff. He personally didn’t really want to be out in the cold either.

The duo climbed, and they climbed. The path was not too bad, but Alex kept his guard up either way ready to see some kind of creature jump out and attack him. He knew that the farther away from the settlements everyone got the wilder things became. This world shared some similarities with earth, but for each thing they had the same there were that many things that were different. The predators that people were used to back home were tame beasts compared to some of the monsters that could be found in NuValla.

One this trek when they found one though, it was already dead. They approached the carcass with caution. The monster resembled what would come out if a boar and a wolf were to have an unnatural baby. It had the shape and body of the wolf, but teeth and tusks of a boar. Its fur was wiry and spiky like a boar’s.

Alex knelt to look at the dead body. It had been taken down by high energy rifle fire. He started to take a look around and it was then that he noticed that there was more than just the one. In a field just beyond the path there was a whole herd of the Hornwolves that were dead scattered among the grass.

“Whoever did this, had fire power.” Alex said standing up from the body.

“I’m also guessing since these bodies only look to be a day or so old, that we are going to enjoy the company of whoever did this on this mission.” Obsidian added.

They left the massacre and continued on their path towards the summit where the path leads them to the crash site. The path that they followed was lined on either side with tall pine trees that had brilliant blue needles the color of frozen water.

After three hours of walking they came to the last bend in the hike before where the crash site was located. Alex slowed the duo holding up his hand. The moved off of the path and into the trees. The found a perch where they could overlook the situation before they moved in on the crash site.

They knelt low to the ground until ultimately lowering to their bellies, so they could stay hidden. The two of them army crawled to the edge of a ledge through the dirt. It was hard to stay silent as Alex’s suit scrapped the rocks in the ground.

The ledge was the top of a rim from the crater that was caused by the impact of whatever it was that had crashed. The whole crater was nearly a mile in diameter. At the center there was a large tent set up hiding the object form view. There were modular buildings that had already been set up around the object and a fence had been erected to keep out intruders.

In the five or so minutes that Alex watched he counted three dozen soldiers patrolling the area. That wasn’t including anyone inside of the buildings that had been dropped on to the site. They seemed to be moving on a very strict rotation around the site.

The soldiers that he could see were all dressed in a black uniform. Each of them wore a mask that covered their face and seemed to offer atmospheric options such as oxygen recycling. They each carried a high-powered energy rifle. Alex didn’t recognize the symbol on their chests. It was an upside-down triangle with two-pointed line going from the center to the top.

“Recognize that symbol?” Alex asked in a whisper. There was a vast distance between them and the soldiers but didn’t want to push their luck.

“No, I don’t recognize it at all.” Obsidian said shaking her head.

“Function, what do you have?” Alex asked his digital assistant.

“Searching…” Function said in a hollow tone.

“Do you think that it is that space weapon’s thingy you were talking about to that laser-man guy?” Obsidian asked while they waited.

“Maybe, but that crashed down months ago. I feel like this has been here for a relatively short time.” Alex said with a shrug.

“Search complete. I was unable to produce many results with that symbol, but I was able to find three references to an organization called The Cold Collective. Unfortunately, beyond the fact that they exist there isn’t much more information on them.” Function said in a defeated tone.

“The cold collective you say?” Alex said in an undertone a little to consider the name and also to bring Obsidian into the loop.

“Yes sir. I apologize that I could not find more information.” Function said.

“No worries, we’ll just go ask.” Alex said motioning to the crash site.

“We doing this?” Obsidian asked in an excited tone.

“Let’s try to get inside undetected to see what we are working with.” He suggested.

“Alright let’s go.” She nodded.

They began climbing down the side of the crater. There was plenty of holds for them to get down the twenty-foot drop with no issues. They darted across the crater as fast as they could. Night was starting to fall as pink light broke over the horizon.

When they got to the fence they leaned into the shadow of one of the modular buildings while Alex counted. He was waiting for the rotation to come through, so they could get over the fence silently.

When the time finally came it was completely dark. Several large lights were ignited around the modular buildings. It lit up the area, but it also created several shadowed alcoves that they could use to hide as they moved through the site.

Alex grabbed obsidian around the waist and with a little focus he lifted the two of them over the wall and softly landed on the ground right on the other side. The ground was soft and made zero noise when they landed.

The duo stayed low to the ground as they moved through the shadow towards the center tent where the object was hidden. In the passage between two buildings right outside they came upon a guard. He stood next to the wall scanning the path opposite the direction that they were coming from. Alex signaled for Obsidian to wait.

Silently he moved forward in a crouch. He moved as closely as he could behind the guard and checked his surrounding to make sure he was clear of the sight of any other guards. In a swift motion he stood up and wrapped his arm around the guard’s neck while also grabbing his mouth with his other hand. He squeezed tightly hardly even using all of his passive strength until the man’s body went limp form oxygen deprivation. With ease he was able to drag the body back and roll it under one of the modular buildings. They were deployed on landing gear like stilts that held them almost two feet off of the ground.

Alex took the man’s identification card, his energy rifle, and an energy pistol. He handed the rifle to Obsidian and kept the pistol. He found a knife on the man’s back that had an active plasma coated blade. Alex thought it might come in handy, so he took that too. He was tempted to take the man’s uniform as well but did not want to change outside in the cold.

They returned to the end of the passage where the man had been standing guard. They could see that there were a few entrances for the large tent over the object. To the north there was a larger door where an aircraft was landed. Alex noticed that there was a clear path to that door now that the guard was out of the picture. With a final look around to make sure it was clear they darted around the building in the shadow to the service entrance.

The landing area was litter with crates. They stayed crouched behind them as they made their way to the door. With a quick scan of the guard’s card the door slid open. This led them into a small maze of hallways, but it didn’t take them long to get inside the main room.

Alex stopped dead in his tracks when he saw what the object was. Before them was a massive Alien Space ship. It was hard to tell which side was the front or what was the back, but Alex assumed that the narrower section that was imbedded in the ground was the front. There were large holes in the rear portion that softly glowed with a light blue color. The whole thing was curved and sleek. There wasn’t a single sharp edge in the whole design.

Alex noticed that there was an observation room. They made their way around to the side where the door was standing open. Alex carefully peeked his head inside.

A large man stood over two people who were kneeling on the ground. The man was wearing a similar uniform to the soldiers outside, but his was equipped with massive plates of armor on his back, chest, legs, and arms. His helmet had addition pieced of flair coming off the top. He held an energy pistol pointed down at the people.

These two people were obviously scientists. They both wore lab coats and the blond woman on the left wore glasses. The brown-haired man on the right was holding his hands over his head in fear as the gun was pointed directly at his head.

“You’ve had twelve hours, why have you not gotten us inside the vessel.” The man demanded moving the pistol until it touched the other man’s head.

“I’ve told you, our computer systems cannot integrate with the ship’s computer. They won’t talk. We can’t issue the command to open the doors.” The fearful man said.

The armored man pulled the trigger. The bolt of red energy shot though the man’s hand, and then his head before entering the ground behind him. The fearful man’s body went limp and collapsed to the ground.

“I’ve tried to tell you Dusk, we need more time.” The woman said. Her tone was not fearful, instead she was confident and assured.

“Lucky for you his death just bought you another six hours.” Dusk said as he lifted the woman by her hair and tossed her at the panel. She hit the console and rolled off falling to the floor from the impact.

“Oh, I don’t think so.” Alex whispered. He moved so that he was hidden by the doorway. Rearing back his fist he started to active his Seismic punch. He could fee the energy flowing into his hand as it started to grow a blue color and streamers of light began to appear. Alex tried a mental exercise. He began to allow extra energy to flow into the attack.

Dusk walked out of the room. Alex unleashed the massive punched on the man the moment he was in range. His fist made contact with Dusk’s head sending him flying thought the air. His body rebounded off of the hull of the alien ship and went through the soft wall of the tent. He stopped when he collided with the wall of one of the modular buildings.

­-You have discovered a new Power Booster.

-If you double the amount of energy that you pay for a skill you will receive a boost of 50% more power.

-This only applies to powers in which it has been discovered.

-(Seismic Punch)

Alex dismissed the notification.

“Are you alright?” He asked the woman.

“I’m fine.” She said standing up from the floor.

Alex turned and walked towards the man. He was ready for a good fight and he felt like this guy was going to be a challenging opponent.