25 – MULTIVERSE ROAD TRIP
The white light of the portal journey subsided, leaving Lime Squadron to stare out at a strange new world. Everyone stared at the landscape around them in a combination of wonder, confusion, and odd fascination. They were standing in a forest of short brown trees with voluminous clouds of leaves (or at least, what they perceived to be leaves). The ground was a matted layer of thick green grass, and small flowers and bushes clustered in close together along the floor. Normally, this would have looked like a nice cheerful forest. But there was one particular thing about this place that made it look anything but normal.
Everything was cube-shaped.
Absolutely everything.
The tree trunks were not round, but instead shaped like square brown towers that stretched up to their masses of leaves, which in turn were not so much branch-like as they were hundreds of green-spotted cubes clustered together at the tops of their respective "trees". Even the general shape of the landscape itself was derived from cubes: where the ground sloped downwards, the incline Lime was standing on revealed itself to be composed of layers of cubes of dirt and rock, all stacked in perfect fashion on top of each other. Even the flowers and bushed were in some way derived from cubes. Looking closer, Lime could see that the flowers were actually composed of many very tiny cubes of varying colors, and the bushes were no different in this respect.
Swiveling his helmet widely, Ryan was gaping. "Where the fuck…"
"You should know that we're no longer in the same universe as the Abyss," Guy Dudeperson informed everyone.
"No shit!" Wren agreed. "This whole entire place is themed around blocks and cubes!"
Suddenly Skope let out a surprised shout. Everyone turned in his direction.
"What is it?" Jess exclaimed.
Skope was pointing at the rest of the group. "Look down," he said slowly, with an err of scared nervousness.
Everyone did. What they saw gave them the same reaction as Skope. Once they had gazed long enough at themselves, they finally bothered to look at the rest of the group and saw that everyone else was just as they were.
"This is totally not right," Kevin stated. "We're…"
"Derived from cubes," Nome finished for him. "As is everything else in this universe."
Every member of Lime Squadron looked like a Lego version of their normal selves: their arms and legs were long straight-edged rectangles that ended in cubular stumps where their gantlets should be. The same was true for their torsos, which were similarly geometric blocks of metal. And finally, their helmets had become boxes, with the front side colored something like their visor shades had been.
"How the fuck did we all become cardboard boxes all of a sudden?" Wren exclaimed.
"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, I believe that the nature of this universe is entirely derived from the base geometrical unit of a cube," Nome postulated. "Which implies that, according to the underlying logic permeating the very existence of this universe, everything must be composed of cubes, including all things which teleport into it."
Guy laughed. "If you think we look weird, just wait until you see the wildlife here."
Lime didn't have to wait long at all to see what Guy was talking about. Just after he finished speaking, a member of what the Red referred to as "wildlife" came into view, distantly off in the trees. It walked on two very thin yellow legs that supported a rectangular white body. On the top of this body was sported a box shaped head with two dark squares near the top middle, which Lime assumed were the creature's eyes. Jutting out from the head-cube was a yellow rectangle which had a smaller, red rectangle underneath.
"Is that a duck?" Amber wondered out loud.
"No, it's a chicken," said Jess. She looked at Amber, then back at the creature. "Why would you think that that's a duck? I mean, it's plainly a chicken."
Amber shook her head. "No, it's a duck. The white takes up much of the body, and the beak is really large."
"It's a chicken!" Jess protested. "It's so obvious!"
"How is it a chicken?" Amber exclaimed. "What kind of chicken have you seen that actually looks like that?"
"What kind of duck have you ever seen that looks like that?"
Guy chuckled as he watched he argument, shaking his helmet-cube in amusement. He probably knew what animal it really was, since he had clearly been to this universe before, though he was unwilling to share that information with anyone.
"Have either of you been to Earth?" Skope asked.
Both women shook their heads.
"So then how do either of you know what a chicken or duck actually look like?"
"Books," Clair offered.
"Which show chickens and ducks as they are in our universe!" Kevin countered.
Guy began to double over with laughter. Everyone stared at him. After a moment, Patton approached the Red with his now-rectangular shotgun in hand.
"This conversation is getting rather stupid, don't you guys think?" Skope observed.
"I'll say," agreed Amber. "It's a duck, pure and simple."
Jess grumbled, but gave no further argument.
"This universe is magnificent, is it not?" Nome said with reverie while slowly swiveling his helmet-cube to gaze at the scenery around him.
"Is it?" Skope asked.
"Indeed," said Nome. He wandered over to a small rise in the ground, where a cube of dirt with grass on top sat above the rest of the forest floor. "All of the cubes that make up the landscape in this world are exactly the same size. Look." He extended his arms at the dirt cube. "This cube, according to the distance measuring program on my heads-up display, is exactly one meter. Exactly!" He then made his way back to the group. "Do you all realize what this means? Do you?" He looked around at everyone expectantly.
Several other members of Lime looked at each other. It was unusual for Nome to seem this energetic and excited. "No," said Jess. "What does it mean?"
Nome held up his arm in lecture posture. "It means that if we count a certain number of cubes in any north-south-east-west direction, the distance we have traveled is that many meters…exactly!"
Hester was nodding her helmet-cube as Nome spoke. "Yes, I see…wait, why is this at all important, again?"
"The cube implication has a much broader meaning about this universe," said Nome. "It means that everything in this universe is straight-edged, set in perfect rows, and all pieces of it can fit in exactly with all other pieces of it. Perfect symmetry. It is wonderful. Beautiful. Magnificent!"
"Um, what universe are you from, again?" Guy asked the medic.
Nome continued trying to explain about cubes and how this related to the perfect order and symmetry of the universe, but all of it seemed to go over the other's heads. It was a new thing to see Nome so pumped up about something, as he was usually a meditating and introspective kind of person. So they let him keep talking, more because they wanted to catch of good glimpse of him while he was energetic then because they were understanding what he was talking about.
A few minutes into Nome's strangely enthusiastic monologue, Guy suddenly cut in. "Um, guys, it's starting to get dark. We need to leave this universe, like, right now."
The others looked up. Indeed, the sky was starting to turn a purple-blue, and the white cube of a sun could now be seen steadily approaching the mountains bordering the horizon. "Yup, it's getting to the end of the day, all right," said Patton. "This planet has some really short days. Don't see why that means we need to leave ASAP, though."
"We just do," said Guy. "Trust me on this." He extended his arm and hit the place on that rectangular appendage that must have been where his tacpad was located. At once, the portal reappeared. One glowing white cube appeared out of existence, which quickly expanded into many cubes connected to each other, an irregularly-surfaced ball of cubes. The portal expanded until it reached the same size as it had the last time Lime had used it, and which point it stopped growing. "We are on a preset hyperdimensional course through the multiverse," the Red then explained. "So I can call the portal at any location at any universe that is along this path. And now it's time to go."
Nome was still avidly looking around the world. "If I could just stay a moment longer, to appreciate the symmetry of the components of the landscape…"
"No!" Guy protested. "We need to leave now!"
"You will tell us why," said Hester. By now, the sun had gone below the horizon. Blue-black darkness was creeping along the sky, and stars were beginning to emerge.
"Some really nasty creatures come out at night," Guy answered. "Not animals. Just…nightmares. Things that it would be best if we didn't have to fight."
Hester's arms were crossed. "Uh-huh."
"I've had to take a few liberties," said Guy as he turned back towards the portal. "We're going on a bit of a shortcut. The next two universes we would normally be going to are both extremely dangerous. The first one is a ragged warzone inhabited by people who haven't invented armor suits like ours or even explored outer space yet, so they would probably think of us as hostile due to our appearance. They're all really good at sniping too, which would complicate matters. And the other universe is currently being invaded by a subterranean alien species called the Locust. Best to avoid that one as well. Point is, I'm having to take us way outside of the spaces we'd normally be traveling through."
"Whatever works," said Patton. "I think you know by know what will happen to you if any of us even so much as suspect that you're trying to pull something."
Guy nodded before checking his tacpad. "The portal is calibrated for our shortcut. Is everyone ready?"
Lime Squadron responded by stepping diligently into the portal, Patton dragging the Red at gunpoint along with him. The sphere of light shrank and disappeared just as the last sparks of daylight left the night sky.
Lemon Squadron crept along the dark corridors of the Avant Garde, paying caution with every step. Things were not going according to plan. When their radiation-resistant OLAV pods had crashed into the ship, the Purples were supposed to be taken off guard. But that didn't seem to be the case. In fact, they had encountered no one ever since coming on board. Not a single Purple soldier. Normally the absence of enemies was a good thing. But in this case, it was terrifying. The Avant Garde was supposed to be the central command of the Purple Army, outside of Roster Teth. So where the hell were all the Purples?
Add that to the fact that Lemon Squadron was clearly being led along a preset path throughout the ship. At every corridor intersection they had come to, there had been exactly one unlocked door leading onwards. They had tried to divert from this path by blasting their way through a door that was locked. But every door they had tried that with had proven to be backed by a full thirty centimeters of reinforced titanium, which was impossible to blow through without taking the part of the ship they were on along with the door. So, the situation was that they were trapped on a Purple capitol ship, within a trap laid out by only the most notorious mastermind of strategy in probably the entire war, with their only option being to press forward in the direction which they knew Vorennius wanted them to go in.
It was times like this when Hearts would really have liked Patton to accompany them. He had a way of being both extremely angry and imperturbable at the same time, and probably would have come up with a way of dealing with this situation. But he was in another universe, along with Hester and the rest of Lime Squadron. Instead, Lemon had Brain to deal with, a former Blue who was more interested in the corridor's authentic color-alternating lighting than he was the immediate situation at hand. His focus was constantly on what shade of near-white he thought the lighting would change to next, be it sky blue or pink light purple. That was what he as good for. Which was great, as far as Lemon was concerned. Absolutely fucking great.
The group came to yet another corridor intersection, which had doors leading off in three other paths, split off ninety degrees from each other. Deryn walked slowly around the perimeter of the intersection, trying each of the doors. Locked…locked…unlocked! Yet again, exactly one door through which they could continue. And of course, the door they had just come through slid shut behind them, locking itself and thereby preventing them from retracing the path they had come from. Everyone gathered around the unlocked door. Deryn took point, aiming down the direction of the soon-to-be-revealed pathway with her designated marksman rifle so that she could cover the others in the event that they did finally come upon enemies. Hearts hit the switch, the door slid open, and everyone (except Brian) reflexively tensed for enemy contact.
Another empty corridor awaited them.
Deryn lowered her rifle. "Damn."
The five of them headed down the corridor, Lemon's cautiousness beginning to be replaced by annoyance. They had gone through so many corridor intersections now that this routine was quickly becoming monotonous. But that was before they gazed upon the door at the other end of the hallway. Unlike the ones they had come upon previously, this one was much larger and wider. A track or grid extended from the door, down the hallway towards Lemon, which was clearly intended for a cart or other large cargo carrier to be pushed along it.
"I think we've finally reached somewhere," said Tom.
This can only be the location Vorennius wants us to find, Hearts thought silently to himself, though he was sure that the rest of Lemon was thinking the exact same thing. He approached the cargo door and hovered his gauntlet above the door's activation switch. Everyone's weapons had been ready for a long time now, but there was still that familiar feeling of anticipation that he had right before a battle was about to begin.
He hit the switch. The door buzzed open to reveal a gigantic illuminated chamber, with walls reaching many tens of meters above its grated floor. The chamber was huge; even without considering its volume, just the area of its floor alone was nearly half the size of the canyon in the Halothrii Wilderness. The entire chamber was also completely empty.
The group lowered their weapons, all but Inez exhaling exhausted breaths. "Does it end?" Deryn moaned. "Another empty room!"
"We're still playing this same stupid game?" Hearts exclaimed in frustration. Then he raised his voice even louder and shouted around the room: "Vorennius, I know you can hear us! Enough with this stupid charade. Send us some enemies, you coward!"
Almost on cue, the group could suddenly hear something off in the distance, sounding as though it was coming from underneath the chamber they were standing in, but getting closer…and louder. A mechanical resounding engine, like hydraulics lifting something through a large shaft. As the seconds passed, that sounds resolved into more sounds. It wasn't just one thing on its way to meet Lemon. It was many.
Lemon readied their weapons instinctively. "Finally, a battle," Inez stated. "About time."
Around the perimeter of the room, roughly a dozen depressions in the floor opened up to reveal elevator shafts. Lemon looked around, becoming conscious of just how many enemies had come to fight them. Something had begun to rise out if each shaft, a wide metal head with a broad snout that somewhat resembled a nose. Its two arms contained the weapons: what looked like a Gatling gun or rotary cannon sprouted from its right arm, and on its left the mech sported what could not more obviously be a missile launcher. Five huge barrels opened outwards from a large metal block, which had to be the missile storage compartment. As the lift carried the mech higher Lemon could see that the head and arms were followed by a curiously small torso and two very long spindly metal legs, upon which the head, torso, and arms were supported.
The lifts finally reached the same level as the motor pool floor, and all twelve mechs stepped off while aiming their turrets at Lemon Squadron. Hearts barely had time to say "Oh shit!" before the mechs loosed their first salvos of missiles at Lemon. The group dive-rolled out of the way as the center of the room became fireball of fury, with sixty surface-to-surface missiles all colliding at roughly the same location on the floor. The sound was deafening, though somewhat lessened by the audio-reduction programs in all of Lemon's helmets. As the missiles finished exploding, a wave of superheated air erupted from the center of the room and expanded outwards to meet Lemon. They all braced with their arms instinctively, though their armor and energy shields prevented them from taking any physical damage from the heat.
"Any one of these things is powerful enough to take out an army of Scorpion Tanks!" Deryn shouted into her radio as she strafed throughout the perimeter of the room, trying her best to evade future missile strikes. "And Vorennius sent us twelve of them?"
"He must really want us dead," said Tom as he sprinted out of the way of another salvo of five missiles. "Can't say I blame him, though. If my capitol ship was being invaded by us, then I'd probably want us dead pretty bad too."
"Hey, guys!" came a shout from across the room. Lemon looked over to find Brain standing at the opposite end of the room, where he must have rolled to when he dodged the missiles. "I'm coming over to you!" the former Blue shouted.
"No!" Hearts shouted. "Do not come over!"
Of course Brian did not listen. The instant Hearts started shouting, Brian took that as a go-ahead sign (not being able to hear very well over the constant exploding of missiles) and began sprinting right across the middle of the room. All twelve mechs turned in Brian's direction as the impulsive Yellow entered their view. Lemon could hear their missile launchers loading up. He's going to die, realized Hearts. Nothing me or my team can do about it. Well, at least we won't have to put up with him anymore. Goodbye, Brian.
The mechs unleashed their missiles, surrounding Brian in a fiery cloud of smoke and shrapnel. Hearts raised his gauntlet to the transmitter switch on the side of his helmet to inform the rest of Lemon that Brian was dead. But just before his finger reached the switch, he saw movement immerging from the cloud of smoke in the center of the room. No! That's completely impossible… Brian came running out of the smoke cloud at full trot, rushing over to Lemon and stopping right in front of Hearts.
Hearts just stared at Brian. "I'm here!" the former Blue shouted excitedly once he realized the Hearts was looking at him.
"I don't mean to sound ungrateful," said Hearts. "But how the fuck are you still alive? I mean, those missiles…how?"
"They all missed me," Brian explained.
"They what?"
"They all landed alongside me," said the former Blue. "And my energy shields absorbed the damage from the blasts. Really lucky, right?"
By now Deryn, Tom, and Inez had joined them. Deryn kept looking back and forth between Brian and the smoke cloud in the center of the room, which by now had mostly cleared out. Apparently the mechs were wondering the exact same thing as Lemon, because even they were looking back and forth between the smoke and each other. But after a moment, the mechs decided it was time to get Lemon over with, because they all turned to face the Squadron.
Hearts turned to Brian. "Blue, you are a lucky bastard. But we can discuss that later. For now, I need you to go hide in that corner." He pointed to a corner of the motor pool which he hoped would be out of the way.
Brian nodded and trotted towards that location. And now, it was Lemon's turn to take the fight to the mechs. The four of them scattered in an ordered formation, each member of Lemon making for one of the mechs. Deryn, Tom, and Hearts sprinted around the group of two-legged vehicles, making all of them follow their path. One of the mechs stepped into Deryn's path suddenly and raised its left leg off of the floor. Deryn diverolled out of the way just as a huge metal foot came crashing down at the exact spot she had been a second before. The mech began turning around, still hellbent on finding Deryn, when rounds from an assault rifle pelted off it its head from another direction. Hearts and Tom stood side by side, hailing the mech with automatic fire. The mech turned in their direction, as did the others in the room as well. Deryn reached the other two Yellows just as Hearts and Tom started to run in her direction. Realizing just in time what they were running from, Deryn had to dive roll a second time to avoid another salvo of missiles. All three of them began running in a panicked frenzy about the room.
While all this was happening, Inez snuck up behind the mech closest to her, which was firing at the other three members of Lemon. Inez leapt, her armor boosting her height enough that she landed on top of the mech's head. There was a hatch door just behind the snout. She yanked it open to find a Purple soldier inside the pilot's compartment. He was looking at his viewscreen, which was showing the mech's crosshairs chasing after the rest of Lemon. "C'mon, die you motherfuckers!" he shouted at the screen. "Die!" Then he realized that light was falling on the screen, and looked behind to see Inez.
"Well, you heard yourself," said the Yellow coldly. "Die." She ended the Purple's life with one shot to the visor, then flung the body out with her robotic arm.
Hearts, Deryn, and Tom were busy staying alive, dodging the missile strikes and occasional automatic fire from the mech's Gatling guns, when suddenly one of the mechs turned and fired a missile salvo at the nearest mechs around it. Caught completely by surprise, the mechs stumbled and fell over.
"She's finally hijacked one," said Deryn. "Took her long enough!"
The hijacked mech walked over to one of the depressions in the floor, trampling over another unsuspecting mech in the process. Inez's mech stood on the floor depression. "Come on," said Inez's familiar toneless voice through the mech's loudspeaker. "This vehicle has clearance. We need to go." Lemon now knew that the floor depressions were actually the floors of lifts, and wanting to get out of this chamber as soon as possible, began running for the lift. Brian had also figured out the same idea, as he joined Lemon on the lift.
The instant the former Blue set foot on the floor depression, the lift began to rise. The floor depression morphed into a platform as it left the ground of the motor pool. The remaining enemy mechs had, by now, figured out some of what was going on. They fired at Inez's mech, but Inez kept the enemy down by peppering them with fire from her Gatling gun. As Lemon's platform rise ever higher in the room, the other lifts opened up as well, bringing enemy reinforcements of a dozen more mech. "How many of these does Vorennius have?" Deryn exclaimed. This was, fortunately, the point at which the platform rose into the ceiling. A depression on the ceiling opened up to reveal a shaft leading to the higher levels of the ship. The newly arrived army of mech reinforcements noticed the lift just as Lemon passed out of their sight, and the entirety of the squad's surroundings became the elevator shaft.
Hearts let out a sigh. "Glad that's done with!"
"Me too!" Brian shouted.
"I somehow doubt it," said Tom. "Vorennius most certainly has more stuff waiting for us at the top of this shaft. Don't forget that the Admiral also has control over where this shaft takes us."
"We'll deal," said Deryn.
"And besides," said Hearts. "We have a mech on our side now. I say that once we get out of this shaft, it's time to catch us an Admiral!"
The elevator continued upwards to whatever other challenges Vorennius had in store for them.