Rogue Fox Dark Dreams
Chapter X
Hivemind
Awakening
~SyxxFox
The blue sky of Katina disappeared altogether. The atmosphere above was still blue, but it wasn't that alone. It was dark navy coloured with what looked like black clouds in a dome above him. Bolts of electricity ran through the sky above at every moment, like a storm that would never cease. It was nothing less than erie as the blackened sky revealed what looked like metal structures in what he could only describe as an alien industrial city-scape. Pillars of blue and purple steel stood around him, three times his height, and they only got taller as they moved in toward the Aparoid hive. The rest of the buildings were a dull grey. They looked like storage facilities.
At the center of the city there was a tall rounded, four sided pillar; a tall spire of silver that stood dozens of stories above the rest of the city. No one had ever been inside an Apariod hive before. No one but him. This was the second time he had been inside of one. The last time was many years ago, during the first Aparoidian War. Though it was similar in atmosphere to this, this was something different, and the fox wondered if this is how the Aparoid home plant was formed in the first place. He wondered if this is how it began. But this time it was something he started.
"Siarra, this is Syxx. Radio Check."
Syxx took a breath as his ears twitched. He could feel the metal-like ground under his boots rumble. A swarm of Aparoid Walkers filed in from the gaps between the structures, all headed toward him. He growled softly to himself and lifted his right paw to activate the suit's cloaking from the holographic panel on his left arm. The moment the cloaking was activated he felt a shock go up his spin, and a high pitched alarm chime into his ear. His body was enveloped by electricity for a short moment before it dissipated and the HUD that was built into his visor rebooted.
He grunted sharply from the shock of electricity that surrounded him, and he took cover, while his optics reset. He hid in the shadows near the blue-electric wall that he had entered from. A notice on his armour read out to him:
ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE
OPTIC CAMOUFLAGE DISABLED
The alarm went away shortly after, as he watched the swarm march past him. He stayed in the darkness, holding the suppressed weapon against his chest, and not moving. The long silencer was nearly touching his visor as he hid and waited for the herd to pass through the barrier. Following up the swarm of Walkers, A large wave of Dragoons marched onward from behind. They rumbled the ground as they marched in unison. The fox's eyes turned to the sky, seeing a dozen or so Apariod bugs, flying through the barrier as they screamed their shrill screeches.
"Siarra, be advised. One-hundred plus contacts inbound to your AO."
He had to make use of every single second that he had. He didn't even wait for all the large marching Dragoons to pass through the wall before he turned the corner and fast-marched on his two legs into the Aparoid city. He kept his weapon up to his shoulder, as he stared down the iron sights of the squared off and suppressed ACX battle rifle.
He moved quickly, keeping to the shadows as best he could. He didn't want to even have to kill one Aparoid if he didn't have to.
Syxx opened his communications network again. "Metal Zero-One. No signal. Moving into the Hive." He wasn't sure if the other team could hear him or not, but he had to try.
Syxx pressed his shoulder up against wall quickly as he heard a loud scream. He peaked around the corner, just in time to see two bugs with long wingspans round the corner, flying low through the corridors of the city. He pressed his back against the wall and weapon tightly against his chest, staying in cover.
He poked his snout around the corner, looking into the Apariod city. The narrow structure with a point at the top had a bright blue light that illuminated the entire city, leaving dark shadows cast by structures. Good news for him. Lots of places to hide and room to advance. He took a look through the city. It had grown much larger than he would have imagined in such a short period of time. This was the heart of the Aparoid force on Katina, and once it was destroyed, Katina could be reclaimed.
But he had a worry. The expansion rate of the city was higher than what he or any of the engineers had anticipated. The fox was worried that the bomb placed in the center of the hive wouldn't be effective enough to destroy the entire city. He needed something more. He had to get the weapon elevated toward the top of the structure. The bomb elevated to become an air-blast would be much more effective on the city.
Syxx rounded a corner, and took a moment to sprint down the street. Two legions of Apariod Walkers were closing in on him. He had to make a run for it to stay out of sight. He dashed toward the corner of the outside of one of the many gray buildings. It was about two stories tall. With his running jump, he placed his boot on the wall, able to propel him the rest of the way up the wall, where his armoured glove could grab the roof and he could hoist himself the rest of the way up.
The fox took a look down below as the streets and corridors were suddenly filled with hundreds of Walkers, all marching in unison as they made their way to the outer walls of the city. He took a look below him once more, through the roof he was standing on. He cussed with a low whisper at what he saw next.
The roof was like glass. He could see into one of the many structures. He walked slowly across the glass. Every step he took, the glass glowed around his boot, like a ripple of electricity making its way away from him. In the large room below was filled with Aparoids. Dragoons were packed into the building, shoulder to shoulder. In one building alone, there must have been hundreds. He looked up again over the city. There were hundreds if not thousands of these structures.
He jumped from building to building, only dropping down onto the streets again when the swarms of Aparoid bugs took flight. As he moved toward the center of the city, cover was getting harder to come by. His advance to the center of the city would be slow and steady. He knew he couldn't risk killing any bug, unless he absolutely had to.
The fox slid to the edge of a flat roof and lifted the weapon, taking a look into the core of the hive. He reached into his kit and placed the squared-off medium range scope onto the mounting rail of the battle rifle. He used the optics to scope out his path. His steady work paid off over the next two hours as he made his way into the city center. It only crawled and hummed with the sight and sound of more and more of the robotic insects. It was like rush hour and he had to get by all of them with a tactical weapon of mass destruction attached to his back.
Syxx planted his shoulder against a metal wall, just outside of the tower. He watched as an entire legion of Dragoons marched by. He had to wait for an opening. Taking on so many bots at once could be a death sentence even for a Slayer. He waited in place with his rifle tucked into his chest, and counted the tall robot like bugs as they marched by him. He stopped counting when he got to fifty, as they stepped past him in ranks of ten. He shook his head slowly and in disbelief. There had to be hundreds of thousands of Aparoids calling this base home, if not millions.
He looked around the corner a little more. He could see a gap in the ranks and it might be his only chance to make his way to the entrance of the spire. As soon as the last group past he broke from cover. The battle rifle was lifted to his shoulder as he took extra care to ensure that his boots didn't make a sound on the metal-like ground. He didn't run. He moved at a fast march with the heavy rifle raised and at the ready. This was the most exposed he had been the whole time, and he didn't like it.
He approached a barrier at the base of the spire; a honeycomb of a plasma-like surface. He didn't need to disrupt it for his body to pass right through the barrier, just like any Aparoid would. The sounds of bugs and beasts marching disappeared as he passed through the barrier. He acted a little more casual, with his paw around the pistol grip of the rifle, swinging it as he walked casually forward. The fox had encountered so much Aparoidian technology over the years, he was familiar with how most of it worked, even though they were always adapting and evolving.
He continued forward, approaching a beam at the center of the tower. The bright blue, purple and white light travelled upward through the center of the tower and toward the top. He simply stepped into the beam, and his stomach filled with butterflies and he was accelerated through the spire and toward the top. He started to slow as he neared the top, almost feeling like he wasn't going to make it the whole way up, before it dropped him on the metal flooring in the small room at the apex of the pointed spire.
The small room was filled with coils of light, and purple-blue glowing consoles. It was like a giant antenna. But that wasn't all that was in the room. A handful of infected soldiers had found their way into the hive and to the top of the spire. Just as Syxx didn't expect them to be there, they didn't expect him either. They all turned at once, to see him when his boots landed on the metal. But the infected soldiers didn't have a chance.
The rifle snipped quietly, cutting the air only three times, slashing through the skulls of each ex-soldier and dropping them to the floor before they could make a sound. The swift snaps of the rifle were only followed by the loud thuds of each body hitting the floor as he was surrounded by silence once again.
The fox took a breath as he took everything in for a moment. He reached for the release on his helmet. It let out a short hiss as it depressurized. He removed it and placed the helmet on the hanger at his side, and the rifle against the wall, propped up, as he took a knee. He released the latches that held the photon bomb to his back. He let out a sigh of relief as the massive weight was removed from his body.
The vulpine dropped the device in front of him. The large black cylinder glowed on the edges. He placed his armoured glove onto the device and it lit up. A holographic control panel hovered over the bomb. His glove danced through the controls, and in just a moment of work he armed the bomb. The one-hour countdown began, giving him half the time that used to get to where he was now. But the fox was more than confident this would be enough time for him to get out.
Syxx took a sharp gasp. There was a voice behind him, and it was even enough to make the fur on the back of his neck stand on end. He couldn't remember ever being so surprised like that. Not as a Slayer. The voice was deep, and choked out. It echoed in a low tone, almost like it was being spoken twice. It spoke slowly, and methodically. But it echoed a rough tone that made it monstrous and a little difficult to understand.
"This. Was. Not. My. Tomb."
The fox spun on his knee quickly, still crouched while he lifted up the firearm to his shoulder, and placed his finger into the trigger guard. He put the sights directly onto the large infected wolf that he had just killed. He remained motionless as he stopped his breathing, and waited only for a short while before approaching, at a low walking-crouch toward the dead infected, staying a short-safe distance away.
The Infected's eyes were black; something that was rather unusual. Drool was leaking from its mouth, as his head turned, falling half-limp onto its shoulder. There was a large hole in the side of the man's head on one side from the hardened-plasma round from the ACX rifle entering, while the other side of the ex-soldier's head was blown from its skull. It was truly gruesome. It didn't look like it was breathing, but at the same time, it sounded as if it were struggling to do so. The dead infected jaw dropped open, showing it's razor sharp teeth. Its mouth moved as it spoke that choked back and throated, deep voice, like a monster that struggled to get a word out.
"McClouuuuuud." The voice said before pausing. "Will. Haunt. You."
Syxx's ear twitch. He sat in wait and listened with his finger on the trigger.
"Youuu. Arrre. You are. You are not, the man, you were."
Syxx narrowed his eyes a little bit. He listened to words that were spoken, as hard as they were to understand. He knew that the Aparoids had a hive-mind mentality, but this was something different. It was the words spoken, and as cloaked as the voice was, it was still so familiar to him. He didn't have anything to say. So he stayed silent and the words kept coming.
"Slayerrrr. You are. Slayerrrr. Saviour. Destroyer. We are one in the saaaaame."
Syxx growled softly beneath his breath and spoke through a clamped jaw. "You've aged terribly."
"I… I… have wandered Lylat through space and rust and time." The voice sounded like it was choking on its own blood as the infected spoke to him. "One man consumed by vengeance. Youuu. And I. Are one in the saaaame."
"I succeeded in what you never could."
"Youuu. You've cut the head off the snake. The snake that is the Cornerian Army."
"Years you fought to destroy the Cornerian Army. You failed. I brought them to their knees."
"And now, you fight to save them? To undo what you've done?" The wolf moved closer, as his neck cracked. The Aparoid's black eyes looked into the glowing blue eyes of the fox. "Ahhhhhh…" he took a long sigh. "You have a Krazoa. Intoxicating isn't it? Is that why you fight, McCloud?"
Syxx glared back at the infected wolf, staring him eye to eye. A stern look was on his face. "What happened to my father?"
"Your… Your father?" The menacing voice spoke. "A ghost. Among the stars. Just like you. And In time. Time. The Snake. Will. Diiiieee."
"Not if I have anything to say about it." Syxx didn't hesitate to pull the trigger of the rifle, and it snapped. The heavy round smashed into the skull off the wolf, leaving nearly nothing left of it this time as blood splashed back onto the Syxx's face.
"Noooo hoooome."
The same voice came again. Syxx spun on his foot. The other undead soldier that he had killed just a few moments earlier underwent the same change. Black eyes, dripping fangs with a limp body. The hound was able to turn its head just enough to seemingly look to the fox that approached it at a low crouch.
The muffled and gurgling voice repeated itself. "Noooo hooome. Slayers have nooo hooome." The dead hound lifted his arm, pointing up a claw to the fox. "You think you can undo what's been done? The answers. Answers are in the armour. The truth is in the armourrrr."
His claw got nearer to Syxx, but the fox didn't even flinch. He listened.
"Expendable to the Cornerian Linnnnne. Fiiiinnnnd. Find O'Donnell. For he. He can give you purpose."
Syxx growled softly. "Wolf?"
"Yessss."
"Two years ago, I tried to kill Wolf. He survived."
"And like you, he has only grown stronger in the face of adversity. Fiiind O'Donnell."
Syxx let the muzzle of the long weapon drop. He quickly drew his Blaster from his side and pushed the barrel of the pistol up under the jaw of the Aparoid violently. "Why would I do that?"
"For the fires of your war, have made you brothers."
"I'll never be like Wolf."
"Youuu. McCloud. You already are."
Syxx stared into the dead eyes of the infected man. He watched the purple blood drool from the mouth of its lifeless body, and watched the minutes on the timer countdown glancing over his shoulder as they made their slow way to zero, when the bomb would detonate. He opened his mouth to say something, but just closed it again. He let the silence hang for a long while, before he simply pulled the trigger.
The muffled sound of the Blaster rang out as he silenced it by holding it right up against the neck of the Aparoid. He holstered the Blaster, not even wiping the blood from the weapon. The fox had already wasted precious minutes and he had to get moving. He put his helmet back on and readied his weapon. He lifted the gun and smashed the butt of the rifle into the bomb's holopad, making it spark and smoke. With less than an hour remaining, he left the bomb in a state where it could not be disabled.
He smacked the side of the rifle with his glove, and it made a sharp click, and the silenced weapon was charged.
"Asset Metal Zero-One. Bomb deployed. Making Exfil. Fifty-seven-zero-three until detonation. Enroute to RV now."