The Vigilante Book 1

Chapter 10

I just killed someone. I just killed several people. What the hell am I turning into? Kill to live she said? Kill to live? That's supposed to justify killing other human beings? What the hell is wrong with these people?

"It looks as though we found one of their research locations," Myral stated as she surveyed the hangar.

The cavernous maw felt uncomfortable. While it was obviously natural, the place had been heavily repurposed and equipment sat all around. The autonomous assault vehicle had taken to patrolling the vast cavern and searching for foes. The far side of the hangar held an incredible sight that made everything else seem to be at a moot point though.

The vehicle they had captured was far larger than the ship that had crashed on the beach and appeared to be a different type. The hull was jet black and mostly smooth with a few sharp outcroppings. Two cannons, roughly the size of fighter jets, sat unpowered on the bottom of the impressive and damaged vessel. One side of it was crunched and torn and seemed burned, almost as if the vessel had been yet another to crash on the planet.

"How long do you think they've had this?" I asked, turning to Myral.

"I don't know," she almost whispered while staring at the ship, "But Cie'loth's people made it, I have no doubt,"

"How can you tell?"

"Its markings, color, and hull design are all very similar to the Roswell crash vessel," she paused for a moment, "Grab a weapon," she then commanded.

"Why?" I asked.

"Cie'loth's people are not the most hospitable. And even if they aren't dead, we just killed a patrol and invaded an installation,"

"Then where are the guards?" I asked, growing more concerned.

"I don't know, but I can find out," Myral replied.

My companion walked to a terminal and accessed camera controls. Her face was very annoyed.

"We have a problem," she told me and readied her revolver.

I looked on the computer and saw combat occurring in the installation. It seemed the Dawn was under assault from their main entrance. I could see armed combatants drop like flies from a far away shooter before flashes of light signaled his entrance. Another group of foes fell to a seemingly bulletproof man who appeared to be wielding a sword.

Another person charged into the fray, it was difficult to tell what they looked like due to the fact that they hid so well in the shadows. The brief glimpses of them on cameras seemed to make them look like a Dawn soldier moving with incredible speed and wielding a rifle in each hand.

"Who is that?" I asked, watching him charge Drake Hensley and begin to fight him.

"Could it be? After all these years?" Myral whispered, "We need to leave," she then said flatly.

As if in response to our attempted flight, a klaxon sounded and the hangar went into lockdown and began to close its outer doors.

"Damnit!" she cursed, "We'll have to try and leave through the front and hope that they don't find us,"

"Well there's no point in sitting around here then,"

We entered and adjoining corridor and hoped that we wouldn't run into Drake or his powerful companion. A decimated patrol lay ahead of us in the hall, every man had a clean bullet hole in him. I grabbed a battle rifle from a fallen corpse and held it up.