DarkLight

Part 24: Infiltration

The mission took three days to prepare. Soran had to make his way into a city that was under constant scrutiny-it took some time to devise a delivery method. Soran was standing in the bottom of a large circular barrel, the belt around his waist was masking him from any physical or magical detection-an experimental personal version of the shield around the city. 

“Are you ready Soran?” the voice rang from inside his head-the psychic commuications systems used by Skry Special Forces.

“Yes” He replied aloud. 

“Roger that. Initiating startup systems” the voice replied. Arcs of electricity began to jump around Soran, powering up the Railgun in which Soran stood. He was going to be fired over the water, carried by the huge power of the Railgun, directly into Utopia. His shield belt would protect him from their detection systems.

The arcs were all around him, sparking and jumping from one side of the cannon to the other. They didn’t harm Soran, he was part of them-his powers tapped into them and boosted the power of the Railgun.

“Countdown to ignition in five...”

Soran readied himself, holding his arms tightly to his side.

“Four”

“You know what you need to do, Soran” The voice of Kisa chimed in his head.

“Three”

“Find the Sorceress and do what you must”

“Two”

“She can’t escape”

“One”

He was bathed in light as the sound of rushing wind appeared around him. H didn’t hear the explosion that engulfed the railgun-the city’s primary weapon which lay on its furthest edge. The power needed to propell Soran at the required speed overloaded the weapon and tore it apart.

He was flying faster than the speed of sound. The feeling of passing through water didn’t even register to him as he passed through Eresmai’s protective shield. He was tearing over the ocean now, keeping himself aloft by propelling himself against the magnetic field of the planet. It wasn’t strong, but at this speed it was enough to keep him in the air. 

He was approaching the city, the city that had been his home for his entire life. But he was a human then, and part of the military. He was a Skry-Human hybrid now, and an outcast-an enemy of the totalitarian state. The lights of the city filled the whole sky. He could see the outline of Long Horn Isle below him, wrapping around the mainland of Utopia City marking its southwesterly edge. 

It was time. He let go of the electromagnetic field that he had wrapped himself with. The rushing air was growing louder as he plumeted towards the surface of the planet. The vast ocean below him was growing as he held out his hands and called forth a column of pure liquid, hundreds of meters tall. His skin stang as he hit the colum, slowing his fall as he drew closer to the surface and spewing out huge sprays all around, until he found himself under the surface, and swimming upwards to breath in the salty air.

In front of him were the great Utopian docks, huge triangular blocks extending out from the mainland like an artificial extension to the landmass from which they extended from. The colossal structures were as tall as skyscrapers and formed the cliffs that made up the border of Utopia. The city itsself inhabited the very top of these structures, but within them were the shipyards that maintained the Lordships and several entrances to the tunnels that ran within the continental plates, and to the Undercity. As Soran began to swim towards the apex of one pf the triangles that seemed to slice into the ocean, it began to split in two before him, bathing the ocean in an artificial yellow-tinged light. The sea bent and parted in the wake of the mass of movement, sending huge waved outwards, crashing into the other structures and sending ripples far out to sea. Soran was almost swept away by the force of them, but was able to continue swimming through the deluge. Inside the structure Soran slimpsed a lordship, sitting in a flooded Dry Dock and powering its engines to take up patrol in the skies above the city. He hadn’t been noticed yet. This was his chance. Soran created an electromagnetic field and threw it out in front of him like a rope. The ocean around him sizzled and cracked as dead sealife began to bob to the surface, victims of his electrification. The electromagnet struck the metallic back wall of the drydock and Soran increased its power, hurling himself towards the open door. He hurtled beneath the ascending Lordship and hit the wall feet first, causing a shockwave that blew away a number of storage containers and canisters. The alert siren was all around now and the smell of the salt water was mixed with the aroma of gunpowder and energy discharge. Soran was swining and slashing the darklight with unbelievable speed,deflecting and slicing bullets before they could impact his body. Behind him to his left was the locked circular hatch that lead to the hidden tunnels that lead to his destination. He was edging his way backwards towards the hatch, the smell of blood now lingering in the air with the salt water. If the shouts, cries of pain and sounds booming of the guns weren’t in the air then Soran would be able to hear the sound of blood and bodies hitting the floor all around. 

***

Lord Regina was standing in the centre of the bridge on board her Lordship that had just exited the Drydock. The circular room contained a viewscreen directly in front of her with seven manned control terminals all around the edge. Regina stood in the centre of the room between two podiums that reached her waiste - bio-neural controls that let her interface directly with the ship if required.

“My Lord, weaponsfire detected along with Arcane signatures”

“Where?” Regina snapped. The 33-year-old Lord Of Utopia was uniquely beautiful with cromson-red lips and black layered hair that dropped just below her pale-skinned jaw line.

“From... from within the Drydock my Lord”. The uniformed sensor officer was visibly shaking with fear at the prospect of reporting this news to this Lord Of Utopia.

“Bring the ship about” She snapped to the room. There was a flurry of activity and chatter as the order was executed. 

The female Lord placed her hands onto the podiums at either side of her. At once her senses were augmented into the ships system, her vision became that of the entire ship as she saw the ocean beneath her and the Drydock coming into view as the maneurver was completed. Through the open door of the dock she could see the flashes of gunfire and the blue-hue of electricity springing from some unknown source.

“Direct all power to weapons” She barked to the unseen bridge crew. “Firing all weapons in three, two, one”.

Regina, the once young girl from Pinnacle City, fired the entire might of a Utopian Lordship into the gaping maw of the Drydock.

***

The rushing sound of the missles and booming of the impact on the Drydock doors reached Soran slightly before the fire did. The shooting stopped as the room was engulfed in flames. His body reflexivly summoned a malestrom of air around him, momentarily warding off the roaring exolosion. Behind him the doorway had been blown clear away and he ran through it, into the cylindrical corridor that was turning red with the heat of the fires. It was growing hotter and the wind around him was failing, letting the flames in closer and starting to burn his skin. If he didn’t get out of this place then he’d burn to death. A thought occured to him-he was surrounded by metal that would support a magnetic field. Was it possible? Could me make one strong enough? It didn’t matter-he had do. 

Closing his eyes the weakening malestrom turned into an electro-magnetic field which Soran placed all of his mental prowess into. He skidded of the floor, feeling that he was going to fall and be engulfed by the continuing explosion - but the impact never came, and his skin was growing cooler.  He opened his eyes again - he was careering through the tunnels with amazing speed, as if he was on his speeder on the streets of Utopia City high above. His body was held aloft by the magnetic field that was oscilating around him, grabbing onto the metallic structures round him and repelling him off them like a train on tracks. The fires felt far behind him now as he flew through the empty tunnels at uncontrollable speeds. Doorways and other passages zoombed by him as he started to panic about his speed. There was a T-junction dead ahead and his uncontrolled flight was going to crush him against the wall opposite the opening. He held out his hand and summoned a huge arc of electricity that shattered the metal panel, revealing the darkness and stench or rotting flesh from below. He hurtled through the gap, tumbling down and down yet again into the darkenss of the undercity - but this time he was prepared. As he drew closer to the ground he compressed the air below him causing a massive surge upwards and landed with a stifled thud through the cushion of air he had created. He was in. 

Far off on the horizon to the right hand side was the gap that Soran had created with the ULF the last time he was in this putrid place. He pondered on how much had changed since then. Directly above him came the orange glow of the fire, too far away to be anything other than a dull light in the gloom. But the sound was different now. There was no scurrying of skwarking of the lifeforms that lived down here, to rustling or footsteps. The hum of the Clandestine Generators still lingered in the air, but so did another sound - almost like a ‘whooshing’ sound every couple of seconds, like machinery or a small generator. It was her. She must be close to finding the Sorceress. The sound was coming from the east, past the horizon that was blocked by a series of ancient sky-scraper like structures that obscured the view and reached the continental plates high above. It was almost time to confront her again, but this time it would be on even footing.