“That’s a damned long way down. How fast we going to be going by the time we reach the bottom?” Dakota leaned through the shattered elevator doors, staring down into the depths of the shaft.

“Three hundred miles per hour give or take,” replied M ai, struggling to comprehend that fact herself.

“Three hun … No. No way,” Dakota backed away from the shaft, waving her hands. “That’s plain stupid. What if we meet an elevator on the way down?”

“Easily solved,” Jock strode up to the still-smoking entrance, raised his weapons and blasted the thick cables. Parting with a loud bang, they disappeared into the darkness. With a whoosh, and a chorus of screams, an elevator fell past the entrance. “Shit, didn’t think about that.”

Mai’s mouth worked for a couple of seconds as she tried to work out how to respond to what had clearly been an impetuous act, but which had probably murdered hundreds as the large numbers of elevators attached to each of the cables plunged to their destruction.

“Nothing to be done,” Chan patted Jock on the shoulder. “I’ll go first. Team, with me.”

As soon as the survivors of his team were gathered they launched themselves one-by-one into the shaft.

“Hells, I do not want to follow them,” Dakota backed even further away from the shaft until Mai stepped behind her, preventing her from moving any further.

“We’ll jump together. I’m just as scared as you are,” Mai gently pushed her friend forward.

“Seriously, if you were in my suit you’d not be saying that” moaned Dakota.

Mai chuckled, keeping the pressure on Dakota’s back. She couldn’t afford for Dakota’s fear to affect other members of the group. If one balked, others would too, and that would be a death sentence.

“Just take a look down, the others are doing well.” She encouraged her friend. As soon as Dakota poked her head over the edge, Mai placed a hand on the small of her back and pushed, leaping after her screaming friend.

*

Level after level passed Mai as she fell headfirst down the enormous elevator shaft. It had been built to service twelve elevators, three each side. Once more the screaming elevator came to the fore of her mind and she forced it back. Those deaths, whilst not caused by her, were forever going to be on her conscience.

“I fucking hate you,” Dakota repeated for the umpteenth time. Mai had stopped counting both after it had stopped being funny, and the tenth time. It had now turned into a chant.

“Shut up, we’re coming to the bottom,” snapped Mai.

“How can you tell?” At least the chant had stopped.

“I can see our people’s markers; Flip over, feet downward. Set your jets to fire automatically.”

“Roger that.”

Mai looked over to see her friend flip the correct way.

Blink-clicking on her jet pack, she followed her own advice as the ground continued to race towards them. Looking upward, she made sure that none of the rebels following them were going to land on her.

“Ooof!” she gasped as her jets kicked in whilst she was still looking up. It felt as though her stomach had risen into her mouth whilst her lungs were being squeezed at the same time.

Teeth clacking together as her feet hit the remains of an elevator, she staggered forward, only catching herself at the last moment.

“Smooth, Mai, smooth,” laughed Dakota.

“Clear the landing space!” Warned Hind as more jets ignited into the darkness above them. Mai and Dakota needed no further warning, leaping off the crushed elevators and into a space the others had cleared.

“Hold here, I’m going to scout,” she ordered, activating her suit’s STEALTH.

Crouching slightly to get through the exit due to the way the doors had been buckled by the force of the elevators’ impact, she stepped out into the concourse beyond.

She hadn’t known what to expect when she’d leapt into the elevator shaft. There had always been rumours and myths about the bottom levels of the city. One-miler was one thing, but they were in the sub-mile levels. The foundations of the city, and the original beginning of the buildings which towered above.

The architecture was so ancient she couldn’t even tell how old the buildings she saw were. Some had been completely crushed by the weight above them, whereas others showed numerous attempts to shore them up.

Script on all of the buildings was hard to read. It looked familiar, like what she had been taught to read in school, but the spellings were different, the strokes going at funny angles. It was as if she had stepped both back into a different time and another world.

“Concourse is clear,” she commed as she finished a slow turn, sweeping her sights across the buildings. The concourse was poorly lit. Sparks showered down from one set of lights as they pulsed on and off. Other lights were completely dead, their bulbs either gone, or smashed. She couldn’t tell. It was worse than the level she’d been on with the little girl.

Thank Gods we got her over to Biyu’s base before this all kicked off, she thought. Not that the girl had been happy to leave. She’d clearly thought Mai was going to adopt her, or act like a big sister. Only got room for one little sister.

Moving to the left she approached what looked like the remains of a space module. Running her hands over the metal exterior she realised that was indeed what it was.

“We’ve got some of the original colonisation modules here.” She tried to make out what was written on the module, but aside from a couple of numbers and some poorly spelt graffiti it was illegible. Now that she understood what she was looking at, she was able to spot the other space craft surrounding her.

Every one of the colony ships had been a self-contained settlement, designed to be landed on the planet. Vertical, they provided a secure base on which to build a civilisation. It was incredible. She’d read about the start of the city in her school books but had never really believed that people would come all this way in space ships and then build a city around those very ships.

I can’t imagine getting into one of those and flying half-way across the galaxy, no matter how large they are.

Although the stories of the crew members, not necessarily the passengers, becoming nobles as a result of being able to control the resources of the ship made Mai reconsider. It was rumoured that the Emperor was descended from the Admiral of the Fleet. It certainly didn’t seem implausible because one of the thousand titles of the Emperor was indeed Admiral of the Fleet.

Which would mean that the Celestial Court, barring the Ascended, was also most likely descended from the space farers.

“We’re truly here then?” Dakota’s voice startled her. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she let a squeak out.

“Nether City, the sublevels of our great civilisation,” Mai gestured at the spaceships-cum buildings around them. It was only as she did so that she realised the concourse they were on was actually formed by the supports of only one ship. Given that the concourse was easily three hundred paces per side, the true size of the ship above them was boggling.

“And no sign of any natives?” Asked Hind, weapons tracking across the concourse. Everything about his body language spoke of his unease.

“None yet. Any pursuit?” Mai watched as the rest of her team filed out of the elevator shaft. Relieved that she hadn’t lost anyone on the way down, she was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn’t hear his reply. “Sorry, zoned out.”

“None, it stopped as soon as we entered the shaft. They probably didn’t think we’d come down so far.”

It made sense. Nether City was a legend, a myth, a land as bad as all of the hells combined.

“Best move away regardless. Don’t want them dropping a bomb down here and catching us goofing about like tourists. We’ll head over there.” Mai pointed at what looked like a traditional two-pillared gate. She couldn’t tell what colour it had originally been due to the dust and dirt of millennia covering it.

“Are we sure this place is safe?” asked Jock.

“Hells no!” Laughed Dakota uneasily. “This is the source of all the city quakes. One of these babies finally gives way, and we’re jam!”

Jock muttered something under his breath, somehow managing to make it look like his mecha’s shoulders were hunched.

“Spread out, into teams. If a team’s too small, join others,” Mai fanned her hands out, ordering her people into a classic diamond formation. It would give them good defensive and offensive capabilities and make sure they weren’t clustered too closely together should anyone drop a shell in their midst.

Reaching the gate, she saw that once again it was covered in a mixture of ancient script and more modern graffiti.

“Someone clearly lives down here, just can’t read what the graffiti says,” she leaned closer to try and decipher it.

“It says ‘Long Live the Revolution’.” A man stepped out from what had looked like a pile of rusted metal. He raised his hands as weapons snapped up to cover him. “No need for that, I can tell we’re all on the same team.”

“Who are you?” Mai gestured for her people to lower their weapons. She didn’t want the man to be accidentally incinerated, and the thought of a pitched battle in such ancient surroundings made her teeth itch.

“I’m Yen Ching,” he replied, smiling at the gasps of the rebels. His name was legendary, the leader of the rebels, instigator of the War of Traitors.

“Bollocks, you’re dead mate,” sneered Dakota.

“And yet, here I stand before you.” He smiled and gave a slow turn. “Surely you must have suspected that the Heavenly Spirits and the Earthly Demons still survived. Otherwise why would you have fallen so far?”

Mai shuffled her feet, unwilling to admit that it had been mostly desperation which had driven her to do so.

“Ah.” He nodded sagely. It was irritating. “Well, in that case, might I ask your intentions? My people are accommodating, but we don’t have the time or resources to look after tourists.”

“We need a place to rest, to rebuild, to plan,” replied Mai.

“And what do you need to rest, rebuild and plan for?” He cocked his head, looking amused.

“I plan to return to the city, get my sister, and burn the Celestial Court to the ground,” she snapped, irrationally irked by his calm demeanour.

“In that case, welcome to the Nether City,” his voice had hardened. “We’re going to accomplish great things Mai Xiao. Great things.”

THE END - Keep Reading for Book 3. Please leave a review if you enjoyed the story, if not the system.