DECK Prologue

Chapter 5 - Daybreak

 As Artem's eyes opened, he saw a grandiose hall with dazzling decor. The room's theme was the night sky, and nothing could compare to the alluring shine of all of the bright stars on the walls of the room. Suddenly, a flash of light illuminated the whole area as the wall to the far left showed a chandelier-like statue connected to the ceiling and wall with several bronze chains.

The light dimmed from its initial burst, the sound of gears turning started to flare from the walls as the ceiling raised itself. The room, which was folded up like an origami box, now unfolded itself and spread out, revealing just how large of an area the group was in. With the ceilings and walls removed, the only boundaries were what seemed to be the endless expanse of the space beyond.

"Well, this is the final stage," commented Ajax as he walked towards the now vertical stars that lined what used to be a wall. Statues of angels arose out of the floor, encapsulating the stars and plunging the room back into darkness.

"Uh, that's not good," said Artem, who was beyond tired of such antics at this point. The rings on his fingers began to glow brightly as the stage was finally set-up for the finale. Artem checked to see that the torch from earlier was still in his hand and had indeed teleported with him.

"Lind, we're going to need the Main Light again," said Artem anxiously as his instincts screamed that something bad was going to happen soon.

"Got it, we have something to take care of as well so it might disappear at times," replied Lind before hitting the button and transferring the Main Light over, illuminating the statues and stage.

"Well, now it begins," said Ajax as he stifled an unnerved smile.

"No..." started Lind with a sigh, "Now, it ends."

An alarm blared through the security room as the same voice from earlier appeared on the speakers again.

"Phase II complete, duration: 30 minutes, The final phase begins!" announced the voice.

The whole room shook as the sound from the Hall of Stars unfolding resonated with the walls in the office, causing the whole room to shake. Atlas woke up just in time to hear the announcement and jumped out of his seat to get prepared for the upcoming onslaught.

"They needed the Main Light again?" inferred Atlas with a glance, seeing the darkness envelop the few rooms left outside.

"Yeah, be prepared," said Lind as he grasped the grenades and flares left in the munitions pile.

"Do we get the Main Light back at all?" asked Atlas as he prepared what he could. Lind quickly went back to the monitor and tapped the button.

"Nope, it's locked, we don't get to use the light at all," said Lind in an annoyed tone. After processing it for a second, Lind then slammed the table in frustration before kicking the chair into the wall. After taking a deep breath, he checked the other two systems.

"Secondary Lights and reflector systems are both repaired," remarked Lind with a tone quite a bit calmer than earlier.

"That's good, I'll stick to cameras and you do your callouts," said Atlas before sitting back down into his chair and focusing on the monitor. Lind could sense that Atlas' wound from earlier was still bothering him so Lind took the initiative to be the one managing all of the munitions and such.

"Angels are bordering the Secondary Light range, they've got no intentions of getting blown up this time do they?" said Atlas with a self-satisfied chuckle.

"The second wave of wraiths is almost here, we should take them all out, and then we're basically invincible right?" said Atlas as he calculated that without the wraiths, nothing could touch the Secondary Lights if the reflector never broke.