Howdy! Just a small author's note here.
First things first, I'm sorry for how long it took to get this chapter out. I just started college, so I've been trying to get my schedule sorted out and figure out how to balance everything before I could properly get back to writing. Otherwise, the time demon was gonna come for me.
Because of that, this chapter is a little on the lackluster side, and I do apologize for that. I'm still trying to get used to everything, so hopefully I'll be able to get back into the swing of things soon.
Now, with that said...
I have 14 classes every week.
How cooked am I?
_________
The synthesized emergency broadcast barked an ambiguous warning over the sirens, the automated voice cutting through the mechanical shriek before being abruptly cut off by a second, deeper tremor.
"WARNING. WARNING. THE HERTA SPACE STATION IS UNDER ATTACK. I REPEAT, THE HERTA SPACE STATION IS UNDER ATTACK!" the alarms blared as Anthony gripped the edge of the examination table to keep his balance. His eyes, tracking the sudden shift in the room's energy, darted to the pulsing red warning lights.
"An attack?" The researcher scrambled to secure her datapad, her hands shaking as she tried to pull up the station's security feed. The screen cycled through blank, static-filled windows. "The security system isn't reporting anything... I keep getting an error… don't tell me the security system has failed!"
Soon, someone ran into the medical bay, hyperventilating. "E-Everyone, we have orders! Everyone in the Base, Storage, and Supply Zone is to evacuate to the Master Control Zone! We're being attacked by the Antimatter Legion!"
The room seemed to drop a few degrees at the mention of the name. The researcher's face drained of what little color it had left.
"The Legion?" she whispered, her fingers freezing over her datapad. "Inside the station?"
Welt didn't show panic, but the lines of his face hardened. He stepped fully in front of the desk, his cane striking the metallic floor with a solid, grounding thud that seemed to cut through the messenger's hyperventilation.
"Understood," Welt said, his voice a steady anchor in the mounting chaos. "Are the elevators connecting the Base Zone to the Storage Zone working?"
"Y-Yes! The moment the evacuation is complete, we are to shut them off so that the Legion can't get into the Master Control Zone!"
"Anthony… I know you and we, the Express, barely know each other, and I'd understand if you'd decline my request… but could I ask you a favor?" Welt asked as he faced Anthony.
For a moment, Anthony just stood there. "...Yeah, go ahead."
"I need to go and make sure the Express is okay, and I'm sure Himeko is in the Master Control helping with the evacuation. Dan Heng and March, however, likely left the Master Control Zone and entered the Storage Zone. To also help with the evacuation and help fight off the Legion."
Welt paused, his gaze softening with a calm, solemn gravity laced with genuine concern.
"The station's security personnel are trained well, but this was a surprise attack. Many of them are likely already overwhelmed, injured, or worse," Welt explained, his voice low and firm. "With the guards stretched thin, there are researchers and staff stranded in that zone who won't survive an encounter with the Legion. I know Dan Heng and March; they will be prioritizing those people's safety above all else. They'll stay behind to buy the wounded and the cut-off researchers time to reach the elevators, regardless of the risk to themselves."
Welt looked Anthony directly in the eye. "I need someone to go to the Storage Zone to support the defense, find Dan Heng and March, and ensure they and any survivors fall back before the transit lines are cut."
Anthony let out a quiet, steady breath, his brown eyes gaining a faint reddish-orange glow as his pupils narrowed slightly.
"Help the wounded, find March and Dan Heng, and get everyone out before the doors lock," Anthony said, his tone blunt and practical. "Got it."
"Thank you, Anthony," Welt said, placing a firm hand on Anthony's shoulder. "Please, be careful. The Legion can be… relentless." Welt removed his hand from Anthony's shoulder as he left the medical bay.
"Excuse me," Anthony said as he went to go face the researcher, "Could you show me to the elevator that leads into the Storage Zone?"
"Y-Yes! That's where we all need to head towards for the evacuation anyway. The Space Elevator is the elevator that connects this zone to all other zones!" the researcher said as she and her colleagues began to leave the medical bay.
Anthony followed the researcher and her colleagues out into the main corridor, where the soft ambient lighting of the Base Zone had been completely replaced by the harsh, pulsing crimson of emergency lights.
The hallway was filled with motion. Researchers scrambled past, carrying armfuls of encrypted data drives, portable medical kits, and hastily grabbed personal belongings. Up ahead, a pair of people who wielded baton-like weapons, whom Anthony assumed were security personnel, moved in the opposite direction, their batons drawn, trying to maintain order while funneling the growing crowd toward the primary transit corridors.
"This way! Keep moving!" the researcher called over the blare of the sirens, glancing back to make sure Anthony was still behind her. "The main space elevator shaft is just up through the bridge!"
Anthony paused as he looked at the door that appeared to be connected to the space elevator. If he was being honest with himself, he expected there to be more.. Pomp.
"Thank you for showing where the elevator is… I'll stay here for now and let these people evacuate first before I head down."
The researcher blinked, momentarily thrown off by his response as she pulled her data pad tight against her chest. "Are you sure? The transit line could be shut off at any moment!"
"I'm sure," Anthony replied, his eyes briefly sweeping across the panicked crowd surging toward the elevator door. "No point in clogging it up while everyone's trying to get out."
She stared at him for a beat, then gave a brisk, grateful nod. "Alright... just be careful."
She hurried ahead, joining the stream of researchers funneling toward the elevator.
'The inside of the elevator is small, and yet almost everyone here can fit inside of it…' Anthony thought to himself as he studied it closer. 'I see… then that means they're probably using another Curio.'
Anthony continued to wait to the side as he looked around. "Guess that's everyone… though, I wonder where Welt even went to?" Anthony mumbled as he watched the security guards stay where they were.
With the crowd finally cleared, the elevator doors slid back open with a low, hydraulic hiss. Anthony watched the elevator as it went up. After waiting for a minute or so, Anthony went to the elevator and hit a golden button. He continued to wait as the elevator came back down.
When the doors opened, he stepped inside and saw that there were no physical buttons, which confused him. However, a holographic screen showed up in front of him.
On the screen, four areas were displayed: Master Control Zone, Base Zone, Storage Zone, and Supply Zone. Weirdly enough, there seemed to be space for one more zone, but there wasn't anything listed there - just an empty, unmapped slot on the interface.
"Weird…" Anthony mumbled as he tapped the holographic option for the Storage Zone.
Though, it does feel weird. It's like I'm the air but with some static mixed into it…" Anthony shook his hand as he tried to make the static feeling go away.
The elevator hummed smoothly, descending into the Storage Zone. He watched as the hologram came back, telling him what floor of the Storage Zone he was on.
"Three… two… one. Oh, it stops at one. "Anthony murmured as the elevator door opened and stepped onto a black platform.
"This place has no railings…?" Anthony muttered to himself just as a beam of energy whooshed past his head.
He scrambled backward, eyes wide as he took in the three figures blocking his path. Two were odd, armored knights - one hovering in place with small metallic fragments orbiting it, and the other crouched low on the ground, blades attached to its forearms and extending past its fists.
The thing that had just attacked him was smaller than the rest: a floating orb that looked like space was encased in a split, curved shell of sharpened white metal.
The orb's outer shell shifted, whirring, as the curved plates spun open, revealing a core that pulsed with an ominous, building light.
"I'll assume that these guys are the Antimatter Legion that Welt was talking about…"
Before the orb could attack again, Anthony summoned his sword as he lunged straight, closing the distance quickly as he murmured. "With the system not appearing… it's a miracle that I can still summon my sword…"
'Though, without the system, I don't know if I can use any of my skills… Let's test that theory then," Anthony thought as he pierced the core of the orb, killing it, as it dissipated. The floating knight, from what Anthony assumed, ordered the weird knight, the one on the ground, to move forward.
However, before the monster had a chance to do anything, Anthony used it as a trampoline and bounced off its head as he slammed his sword down vertically, slicing the floating knight into two.
He reacted instantly, bringing his blade up to parry the grounded knight as it lunged forward with a sharp screech of metal.
"Hmmm… I can use Fera and Arx, but what about Cruor?" Anthony muttered. With a single fluid movement, he parried the strike and delivered a horizontal slash, cutting the construct cleanly in two. "Yeah, I've got the sword techniques… and Velo. But what about the guard skills or Excidium?"
Anthony lowered his stance, watching silently as the knight's shattered body dissolved into light, exactly as the orb had done moments before.
"Hm… In a way, these things remind me of corrupted Pyre Dogs," he mused, letting his sword fade out of existence.
He paused, looking around the vast chamber. "I know I said I'd help… but where am I even supposed to go?"
His confusion only grew as he surveyed the area. The chamber was broken into multiple floating platforms, all branching off from the central elevator platform and connected only by strange, glowing yellow bridges. However, he then noticed what appeared to be a control on the side and a hologram of what appeared to be a microscope.
Anthony had planned to go to the control room first; however, screams from the room stopped him from doing that.
Anthony turned his head, his eyes snapping toward the source of the noise as he jumped the distance to the platform that the hologram was on, not bothering with the yellow bridges.
He rushed into the room, but… it was too late. There were two more dead scientists, and behind them were two of the blade knights he saw and one heavy-looking one, carrying some kind of gun.
"These bastards…!"