Story of Kings

Phase 2

Not before long the dim hum of numerous drones filled the air. Still running on instinct Ken noticed a door in the corner of his eye.

"Probably leads to the cellar" he thought and dived inside.

As he suspected there were stairs that lead down into an abyss of darkness. Ken hit his chest twice and a dim glow begun to emerge from his pocket.

Ken hopped down the stairs, thinking to himself that hopefully being underground would make it harder for the drones to detect him.

The hum of drones faded for a little bit as he sat in the cellar for a bit, but seconds later it was replaced by a deeper, less monotone sound.

The rumble of the NDF troops closing in on the area shook the ceiling.

They enclosed the area from all angles cutting off all escape routes. Accompanied by a few drones the three units that enclosed the area slowed down and begun to spread out. The metallic grey of the troopers' suits created a wicked contrast against the gold of the Nova Crest on the right breastplate of the suit.

One of the troopers had come to where Ken had landed when he shot the drone.

Considering that the "Museum" was uninhabited the signs of fresh movement were pretty easy to come by.

The trooper confirmed the fresh marks made and the tension in the air stiffened; the troopers knew their target was near. Their movements became a lot more precise and orderly, barely making a sound as they began to enter the various buildings in the areas around Ken's landing including the noodle shop and Pizza diner.

Inside the Pizza diner a 5 man fire-team had crept in, their menacing plasma rifles gripped firm and poised ready to eliminate the first sign of unidentified movement.The rest of their squad had taken up positions outside creating a perimeter to prevent anything from coming in or out.

They tread carefully, stepping over melted plastic seating and shattered tables so as not to alert their prey, the only real noise was the dim hum of the drone's sensor.

Behind their pitch black visor, they were seeing a vast array of colours and lights highlight the diner as the drone's sensors directly fed information of its scans to the trooper's helmets.

One of the troopers had come to the staircase leading to the cellar and made a hand gesture pointing into the seemingly eternal darkness.

The Squad Leader who was stood in the middle of the diner, closest to the drone overhead, tapped at a small holo-com on his wrist. With this the drone's dim hum whirred into life and floated towards the staircase.

On arrival the drone floated downwards, its red scanners briefly warding away the invading darkness.

At the top of the stairs the trooper had been joined by two more, they patiently waited as the drone drew an outline of the area below.

There were a lot of box like objects of various shapes and sizes in the underground vicinity, some of them deformed after melting and contorting in weird ways due to the intense heat of the pirate attack from above.

"Probably a storage cellar or something" said one of the troopers at the staircase.

"Picking up clear signs of recent activity but no life signature, he must have escaped right after" said another who eased his stance.

"You telling me he slipped past 3 units AND the unmanned drones as well? Don't care how high he got in his training scores, we're dealing with a kid" one of them moaned

"I bet if I go down there now I'll find him ..... ""You doubting the drones sensors rookie?" said there Squad leader. "R&D would string you up by your neck and have you cleaning the underbelly of he Genesis with a toothbrush if they caught you talking like that" he exclaimed.

The rookie's posture stiffened up "Sir, I was just saying, it's not always good to leave things to techno ....." The Squad leader spun round and turned towards the exit "OK got the reports from the other squads, looks like the target has made his escape already. We're moving out, meet at the rendezvous point on your visors. Every second we waste that kid could be getting further and further from us"

Before leaving the diner the Leader looked at the rookie, "fight up the ranks kid, when you have your own men to command you can impose whatever shithole ideals you want, but my squad, my rules. You belong to ME" and walked out. The rookie stood there in silence as 2 other troopers followed their leader out.

"He'll always be like that, don't take it to heart kid." Said the final trooper as he slung his rifle over his shoulder and waltzed out.

The rookie looked into the darkness one last time "I know you're down there, we'll still find you, I bet my left testicle on it" and then jogged to catch up with his team.

The sound of the NDF's boots and the hum of the drones slowly faded away as they dispersed into other areas of the Museum.

The cellar sat still for a moment, and then suddenly there was a small shuffling in the corner.

There was a door on the wall, fully closed if not for a small piece of rock blocking the entrance.

Suddenly four black worm-like creatures crawl over the door in perfect unison, as they do the door slowly begins to open. Inside was a mountain of black rocks, protruding from the rocks was a long back creature that the other four worms like creatures were hanging from.

The long black creature then began to extend out of the rocks slowly, as it did it revealed it was attached to an even larger dark body that emerged from the rocks and stretched out of the little door. Finally emerging from rocks was a smaller fluffy creature, it tried to dive out but bounced off the door frame with a quiet clang and welped in pain.

"Fuck sake" Ken cussed as he wiped the soot off his face and caressed his head.

Ken climbed out of the coal cellar, his whole frame black with soot and he gently began to dust himself off. The last thing he needed was to leave a trail leading right to him.

Ken's intelligent gamble had paid off; he suspected that the coal would be able to distribute and absorb the remaining heat that his body was releasing just enough for the drones to not properly be able to distinguish a clear life signature.

Ken crept up the stairs, his crimson red radiation suit still covered in black marks, but a lot more recognisable than before.

Ken was now back to square one, how was he going to get up to the living complex aside from in a body bag.

He slid alongside the shadow of the Pizza diner, mind split between remaining undetected and how he was going to escape to the living complex. "And who said men can't multi-task" he timidly chuckled to himself. As he reached the corner of the building he saw a glow of orange to his right.

At the end of the street a small fire was starting, at first Ken wondered how such an occurrence happened and his senses were on full alert, half expecting a dozen silver bodies to hop out and surround him. Upon closer inspection before the area of the fire Ken noticed the shards of broken metal that looked equivalent to a damaged wing littered just before the fire.

He realised that the cause of the fire wasn't a trap or an ambush but the drone that he had shot earlier had finally crashed and caused it. Ken thought nothing more of it and was ready to continue his journey when he saw a little piece of paper nonchalantly float down, as it got closer to the fire it suddenly began to rise again.

Ken's eyes glowed, whether it was just the reflection of the flames or the spark of a brilliant idea we'll never know.