Darklight: The New World

Part 29: On The Night That Changed The World

As the last bastions of consciousness left Captain Farrell’s body he remembered that fateful night that changed everything over a year ago.

The Lordship which he was stationed on was hurtling towards the ground. Its toe-to-toe skirmish with the lead Skry Airship had lead to primary system failure and disruption of the anti-gravity array and drive pods that kept the ship afloat. The enemy had landed a few shots onto the Lordship, but these system failures were clearly down to an Arcane attack rather than a physical one. 

He was running through a corridor as the ship twisted and rotated in the air around him. As the ship turned the wall and the roof of the corridor became the floor as he attempted to keep himself orientated with the planet below him and the sky above. All around him the stresses began to cause the corridor to break up and other members of the crew cried and tumbled around as if they were trapped in a colossal rotating drum. He was deflecting and dodging these obstacles as he ran towards the external hatch that was now only forty meters in front of him. He had to get off this ship before it impacted the ground. He was at the door as the ships orientation changed so that the corridor was now a deadly deep pit below him. He let his momentum carry him up as the angle of the corridor became vertical and hit the ‘Emergency Release’ button to the side of the hatch. The doors blew open with the explosive force and he grabbed the sides of the open hatch, pushing himself out of the Lordship and kicking off from the external hull. The ship continued to fall under its massive weight as he hurtled downwards away from the coast, which the Lordship began to fall towards, and veered towards the city. The Lordship impacted the edge of the city, crumpling under its own bulk and causing a series of explosions to erupt from its hull. The man was free-falling towards the city and impacted the top of one of the skyscrapers. The fall would of killed him instantly on impact, but as the dust cleared the blue hue of the Darklight Scimitar’s shield glowed faintly as Captain Farrell walked to the edge of the skyscraper he had landed on and inspected the wreck of the Lordship below as the enemy Airship sailed over him with a low hum. It was heading towards the centre of the city as its two Phase Cannons fired through the air at another Lordship in a streak of purple light with a deafening high-pitched squeal.

Something was happening at the Heart Of Utopia, more and more ships from both the Skry and the Utopian forces were converging on the centre of the Utopian nation. As the sun was rising over the city Captain Farrell was atop one of the many commuter trains currently ferrying troops to various skirmishes in the city. This train was bound for the very centre of the Corporation Plateaux.

As the train drew closer Captain Farrell could see the black mass forming at the top of the tower, pulling all of the surrounding light into it. As the train neared the peak of the climb to the tower Farrell jumped, the trains momentum carrying him to the very top of a tower on the edge of the plateaux. As Farrell’s feet touched the concrete roof she appeared to him. Rammachandra.

“Captain” She said. Was she there? He could see her form. She was in the form of a blue light.

“High Matriarch?” Captain Farrell replied. 

“Yes. It’s me. Things have changed. I’m dying. Soran is suffocating me with my own powers and I’m going to die”.

“High Matriarch, how can I help you?” Farrell asked. He didn’t understand this. She was human. Was this some kind of new technology? He didn’t have powers. But all he knew was that she needed his help, and he was hers to command.

“You have done so much for me. What can I do for you?” 

“Its too late for this form” the apparition replied. “My body is about to break. You need to follow directive 134 alpha. It is in my private server of the CCN. Open it with the passcode: Sai”.

“But, but High Matriarch... I don’t....”

“There is no time to explain, Farrell. My time is short, my powers are about to be blocked completely. Follow plan or I will ensure that you have a painful, prolonged death. And finally - protect that server. Contain the explosion that is about to rip through...”.

She was gone.

Then the light came. The silver light through the darkness.

Then the explosion. 

It took a few seconds for the explosion to register with Captain Farrell before he raised the Darklight Scimitar high in the air above his head and with every ounce of his concentration, strength and stamina summoned a vast shield of Darklight Energy, enveloping the explosion and protecting the rest of the city, the firestorm inside the shield raged more ferociously than anything Farrell had ever come across. But the Darklight Energy and his will stayed strong and contained the maelstrom, as she had requested.

Back in the present just as Captain Farrell vacated the living world, he smiled. For her instructions were done and Rammachandra Leon would rise once again.