LOCATION: BASTION CITY CENTER
PLANET: BASTION 123295 CFP
MISSION TIMER: 48:22:06
Two miles to the north, Samir and a group of Rogues had entered the Portal Tech building and quickly got started on their own mission.
They encountered some resistance, but nothing that provided them with a challenge.
But when they entered the actual offices of the Portal Tech control center, a combination of automated defenses and tougher than usual soldiers told Samir what he already suspected to be true: this was the most highly guarded part of the entire Combat Force Projection planet.
That being said, the fifty soldiers and two dozen portal mages posed only a momentary delay, as Samir and his 200 Rogues tore through them like a hot knife through butter.
Once the automated turrets and other countermeasures were shut down and the bodies searched and cleared from the area, it was time to get to work.
Samir directed the teams to focus on three areas.
First, he wanted to permanently disable the thousands of missiles covering the southern hemisphere of the planet.
Next, he wanted any information they could find on the technology itself. Who knew? It might be useful.
And finally, he wanted to see if there was any information on the 1,092 prisoner the Empire had taken.
On the other side of the planet, hundreds of Rogues were scouring the missile silos to see what they could discover from that end.
Back in Portal Tech, the Mages embedded with Samir’s group waited while Rogues experienced in hacking into computer systems broke through the multiple layers of security and encryption.
Even with their enhanced stats and experience, it took them two hours to complete the task.
Once they were in, they unlocked all the tablets and terminals throughout the control center so everyone else could get to work.
Samir got started looking for a way to sabotage the missiles themselves. From what Kaela Sirova’s team had reported, it seemed each missile was fitted with a highly explosive payload.
Perhaps he could find a way to set them all off after the Peacekeepers leave and blow this entire planet to dust? He made a note to calculate whether there was enough payload capacity for that.
What puzzled him the most, however, was the portal capability. As far as Earth had been able to develop its own portal technology, they knew of no way to open a portal while moving.
The gate had to be stationary, and stay that way for some time in order to gather and focus enough energy to tear two holes in spacetime and create a bridge between the two distant points.
He shook his head. That was for the scientists to work on. For now, he had to find a means of self-destruction. Preferably on a timer so they could set it and get back to Earth safely.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
He and his team spent their time searching training modules and other technical specifications, trying to find what they needed.
Meanwhile, the Portal Mages downloaded schematics and technical manuals. Terabytes of data. They took everything they could find in the voluminous databanks, knowing they would not leave any of it intact.
On the southern side of Bastion, five teams had pried open dozens of missile silos.
They climbed inside, carefully dropping down the tubes until they got to the bottom. Hundreds of Rogues, directed by their team leads, began searching through the missile staging and launch area deep beneath the surface of Bastion.
The tubes led to a cavernous room carved out of the rocky planetary core, and reinforced with cement and steel. Hundreds of missiles stood in an array, lodged inside of holding sleeves.
Each sleeve was positioned directly under a silo tube, with only two feet of clearance. The holding sleeves all sat atop mechanisms that would raise upward six feet, pushing the missile tip into the tube.
But it was the bottom of the sleeve that the Echo Team Lead was studying.
“It looks like a door,” he said. “There’s no handle or knob, but… Ah, here.”
His dexterous fingers found a button. He pressed it and, sure enough, a door swung open.
Induction into the System bolstered one’s body and mind, but it turns out it did not remove fears and phobias.
Echo Team Leader shuddered as he looked inside the missile, claustrophobia washing over him.
“Are you okay, sir?”
The Team Leader looked over and shook his head.
“Coming down the missile silo was bad enough, but it was four feet wide. Come look at this.”
He stepped to the side as one of his operatives leaned in.
The inside of the missile had just enough room for a person to stand upright. There was a harness with straps for arms, legs, waist and neck, clearly designed to hold a person in place without any movement at all.
The operative was tinkering with controls, when suddenly he found a lever.
“Stand back, sir. I’m not sure what this does.”
He pulled the lever down, and spikes extended from all directions. The smell of copper immediately filled the tight chamber.
The mechanism moved slowly, and with enhanced Perception, the Echo Team Leader could see tiny perforations all around the tip of the spikes, clearly designed to either inject or withdraw something.
There were ten spikes around the head and ten more situated around the front and back torso.
He called one of the Portal Mages over.
“What do you see here?” the Team Leader asked.
After several minutes of study, extending and releasing the spikes several times, testing the magnetic and electrical fields around the mechanisms, the Mage turned toward the others.
“It seems this device is designed to extract mana or life essence from a person. The slow movement of the spikes is designed to keep the person alive during… extraction. It must be incredibly painful.”
He thought for a moment.
“You know, I bet this is how the portals are being powered.”
“Shit,” Echo Team Leader said. “I was hoping you weren’t going to say that. Half of the missile chambers are filled with blood. My question is: where are the bodies?”
“Well,” the Mage said. “This process… uses everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” the Mage continued, “all matter and forms of biological energy are sapped to power the portals. The blood you see inside is likely from early prototypes. This chamber here would leave absolutely nothing behind.”
The Echo Team Leader sighed.
“I really wish you hadn’t told me that.”
He reported to Samir, Grim and Li on the leadership channel, and Grim’s bloodlust returned instantly.
He was finally back to 100% after the near-death battle with the Supreme General.
“Bring Vallor over here,” Grim said. “It’s time to go find the others.”
He kept two teams on the surface, debriefing the twelve women from Vallor’s harem, and got a group together to head down into the holding cells.
“You’re going first,” Grim said. “And just a fair warning: we just found out how the missiles are powered, so I’m in a pretty foul mood.”
Vallor turned toward him, a look of fear on his face.
“Make one wrong move, and—”
“I will not, sir,” Vallor said. “I am sorry for what they’ve done to your people. I am an administrator, and I don’t take part in any of that. I will lead you to the cells. There will be two security checkpoints, which are likely still manned.”
“Good,” Grim said. “My anger is at the boiling point. I need an outlet. Let’s go.”