A Forgotten Power

Chapter 01: Things of Old

As the atomic bonds were nullified, the stone wall simply ceased to exist, vanishing from sight as it lost all substance. Alexis stepped through the newly created opening, slapping the round disk of an atmospheric field emitter on what was left of the rock wall in passing. The field emitter beeped once before projecting a transparent barrier across the opening. Composed of green energy, the field was covered in a hexagonal pattern of more intensely colored light, blocking the toxins in the air from following Alexis into the cave.

Even with the outside air blocked, Alexis kept the breathing mask over her nose and mouth. Since the air outside wasn't corrosive, her platinum blonde hair had been left uncovered, sticking off the back of her scalp in a spiky ponytail. Her brown eyes, safe behind her goggles, looked over the cave and read the sensor report printing itself on the interior of her lenses.

In a depression on the far wall, a pedestal of stone held a strange item. As Alexis examined the square object, she remembered historical records from previous centuries.  Before neural access circuitry had been invented, humanity kept information in what they'd called books. Although it looked similar to the images she was able to access through her cranial implant, numerous objects had been affixed to the cover. The sensors in her goggles identified them as bones, and as she tightened the focus, she was able to see diminutive symbols etched into the bone in intricate detail.

The cave and the book it held were ancient, and Alexis couldn't make sense of why the bones hadn't turned to dust after so many centuries. She carefully reached out and opened the book. The pages were yellowish and warped, crackling slightly as she turned them. The script scratched into the book was of an old language, but records of it existed in the data archives, instantly being accessed by her cranial implant in order for the translation to overlay on her goggles' lenses. It was a bizarre read as the author spoke of bones as if they held a power unknown by anyone else. Deciding it was worth investigating further, even if the book held no value beyond being a well-preserved relic from a past era, Alexis placed the book in the sealed environment of her backpack before leaving the now empty cave, retrieving her field emitter on the way out.

As she drew closer to the surface, the toxins in the atmosphere increased in concentration, tinting the air with a dense fog of pale brown. Alexis had her hands on the laser pistols strapped to either side of her hip as she emerged from the caves. Mutants, tech thieves, bio-raiders, and scum too lawless to live within the city prowled the polluted realm beyond the wall. There weren't many who could exist outside the wall for long, but those who managed to survive were always hostile when encountered.

Fortunately, Alexis found her flight pod sitting alone nearby. Bullet shaped with a pure black canopy covering the upper half of the craft, only a faint outline showed where the door was located on the gray hull of glossy smooth metal. As she approached, the internal scanner of the pod recognized her as the owner, sliding open the side door and drawing back the canopy to allow her to climb into the single seat surrounded by controls and display projectors.

The instant the door closed and canopy resealed around her, the air purifiers went to work, clearing the toxins from the atmosphere and venting them to the outside. She brought the engines to life, a deep hum vibrating around her as the pod lifted from the ground. The projectors activated on her console, creating transparent display screens for the different ship systems. The canopy created an exterior image on its curved surface, but because the picture was from the sensors and not a visual system, the obscuring fog was removed, allowing her to see the cracked and desolate landscape for miles in all directions.

Instead of going directly back to the city, Alexis decided to make a quick stop elsewhere on her way. Flicking a hand across one of the motion sensitive controls, she changed the original course and directed her pod toward a new location. The vehicle turned smoothly in mid-air to adjust to her alterations. Moving her hand forward when over the throttle, she accelerated her ship to tremendous speed.

Still within view of the fortified wall of the city, and the glowing dome of the atmospheric field, Alexis set her flight pod down in the ruins of a much older city, abandoned years ago due to war, poisonous gas, or spreading mutations.  Alexis didn't know or care about the reasons. It didn't really matter anymore. The city's end had been violent and abrupt, leaving the towering skyscrapers to decay with age and neglect. Windows not broken into jagged shards had been caked with years of dust and grime, turning them opaque.

Alexis made sure her facemask was secure before opening the pod to the outside world. The street where she'd landed was cracked and brittle. Had the atmosphere allowed plant growth, it would've been sticking up through the fissures. Heading to the rear of the pod, she accessed a small storage compartment. Essentially an environmentally controlled drawer, the storage unit slit out with the faintest hiss of its mechanics before the lid opened, allowing in the toxic air.

Searching the nearby buildings and wrecked vehicles yielded results almost instantly. Bones of the former citizens had been left where the bodies had fallen during the collapse of the city. If she was going to put the book she'd found to any kind of real test, she'd need bones, and since everything within the dome was recycled, outside was the only available source. The bones and skulls clattered hollowly together as she loaded them into the storage container.

A sensor beeped twice at her as an overhead mapswitched on in the upper corner of her lens' projected data screen. Overlaid on the map were a dozen redindicators, each of them moving toward her location. Alexis had been noticed by the locals, andthey were coming for her.