Chapter 7

Okay.  For all the new MOAGers out there this is chapter 7 of the History Of Atrius Preim.  To read the other 6 chapters, simply click "The Story that shall remain Nameless" in the topics section.  I highly encourage you to read the first six chapters so you know what's going on.  Anyway, to continue on with our story...

Atrius was two blocks ahead of Dannis, Xar, and Shyla. He had been on point, doing a routine sweep when he had found the tracks. He had contacted Dannis, who told him to get out of site and wait for the rest of the group to catch up. There was only 4 of them, and they didn’t want to risk running into any company alone. Atrius had hidden in the lobby of what used to be a large department store, waiting quietly for the rest of the group to show up.

He had just settled down to wait when his scanner started beeping. He quietly thanked Osirius that Hooblabah had at least given them some powered armor. He brought the scanner up on his vid screen. H saw 4 large beings, and they were in the department building and coming this way.

“Dannis. Come in Dannis” nothing. His comunit wasn’t working. He would have found this unusual, but at that moment he saw one of the “visitors” coming down the stairway. It was a Klisk. And it was heavily armed.

He ducked back down behind the reception desk, hoping that the Klisk was not using its scanning equipment. The large laser that punched a hole through the desk next to his head confirmed that yes, the Klisk’s scanner did work, and it was in fact using it. Atrius raised his RS-252 over the desk and returned fire. At this point all Hell broke loose. The Klisk was joined by the other 3 Klisks, and the lobby air sizzled from laser fire and the endless roaring of the Devil’s Bane, the Klisk heavy weapon of choice.

Atrius screamed into his com-unit, but it was still nothing but static. He was crawling along the floor, returning fire over the quickly deteriorating reception desk and was quickly looking for a way out, but it was becoming painfully obvious that there wasn’t going to be one. The desk behind him collapsed into dust as one of the Klisks came crashing down on it. Atrius fired point blank into the chest of the hulking beast, one of his blasts piercing the armor. The Klisk roared in pain, reached down with a speed that caught Atrius off guard, grabbed his foot and threw him like a rag doll across the room and into a wall of elevators. His armor took the brunt of the impact, and Atrius quickly rolled to his feet, RS-252 blasting away as he tried to run away from the 4 advancing Klisks. The wall exploded around him as the Klisks opened fire with their Devil’s Banes. Elevator doors where shredded like they were paper, the marble accents on the walls evaporated into dust, explosions erupting everywhere. Atrius had no chance and he knew it.

It happened, and he was surprised. He felt no pain. He looked at his left arm as the armor disintegrated. He saw the flesh and muscle shred away from the bone, he watched as the blood spray covered his face. He felt the force of the impact forcing him back into the wall, and then, he was through the wall. He was in total darkness, except for the hole that he had just come through. He was slowly falling down, away from the hole and as the black surrounded him the pain came. And with it came death.

Dannis, Xar and Shyla were sitting quietly in the dark alley. After Atrius had called in about the tracks, they were proceeding very slowly, and cautiously. Dannis had quickly ordered the three to turn on their local masking equipment. This hid their armored power output from scanners and also hid their heat emissions. Hopefully Atrius had used his, but Dannis wasn’t sure he was paying attention when they went over that part of the suit training. He ordered the three of them to split up, each going into a separate building, and each to double back as quickly and quietly as possible to the dark alley they had scouted earlier as a good place to hide if the need arose. He had ordered them to turn off their com-units, no need to let whoever it was that was out there follow their communications. This however had the unfortunate drawback that Atrius could not contact them, but they were sure he’d be alright. He was always the one who could get out of anything.

Dannis was watching the street from where they had just come. The alley was a good 3 blocks from where they separated (unfortunately in the opposite direction from Atrius), and offered a good view of the street in both directions. It was very dark, and combined with their local masks, provided excellent cover. He felt a small tap on his shoulder. He turned to Xar, who pointed with two fingers in the direction they were originally headed. Dannis looked over Xar’s shoulder and couldn’t see anything. He signaled to Xar, who held up his hand, telling him to wait. Dannis sat watching the street for what seemed forever. Then he saw them. There where two massive figures sitting in a large building, about 2 blocks away. He turned to Xar and the two of them conversed using hand signals, a skill commonly used in the Conar military. They both agreed that the two were Klisk. Too big for anything else. Dannis didn’t like this turn of events. There was no mention of Klisks being part of the KMF resistance group. It was supposed to be mainly Humans with a few Macaneons and possibly a Gargonan. They could handle Macaneons and Gargonans, but Klisks were an entirely different matter. Shyla tapped both of them on the shoulders and pointed in the direction they had come from. Two more Klisks were making there way down the street, one on each side, sweeping their Devil’s Banes back and forth.

Dannis swore quietly. The Klisks new they were somewhere between the two groups, and the two coming down the street were basically going to drive the three of them into the other two, like hunting Kraells back on their home planet. Well, he wasn’t going to be any part of a hunting expedition, not tonight anyway. He quickly and quietly led Xar and Shyla down the alley. It wound it’s way through the dilapidated buildings for nearly six blocks before opening onto another street that ran parallel to the street they had come up. Dannis hoped to make it to that street, and double back to the landing site. Hopefully Atrius would figure out that something was wrong and he’d head back as well.

They had gone roughly 30 meters when they heard it. Soft footfalls of something that was very big, trying to be very quiet. They quietly ducked into an empty loading dock, and sat quietly, no one daring to move a muscle. The alleyway was extremely dark, so they weren’t worried that they could be seen, but even a Klisk could tell when it bumped into something that shouldn’t be there. They watched as two Klisk came down the alleyway. They were coming single file, the alleyway wasn’t wide enough for them to walk side by side. They had almost passed the three Priems, when they came to an abrupt stop. The Klisk in the lead stood silently for a moment, then reached up and punched a button on the side of his helmet. The blast shield of his armor opened up to reveal his slate-grey face. The other Klisk followed suit.

“So we just sit and wait?” The second said to the first.

“Yes. Those are our orders.”

“Why? They could be anywhere.”

“You heard the report. Something triggered the alarm at site 16. That’s only a click from here, they could have easily gotten there.” The first started rummaging through his hip container. “Besides, site 16 is near their landing zone, so it would make sense.”

“What do you think happened with the little one?” Asked the second. Dannis perked up. Could they be talking about Atrius?

“He’s being taken care of. We’ll have to thank him for showing us where the rest of them where.” The com-unit on the first Klisk beeped on.

“Makaa, what is your position?”

“We’re in the alley, almost to the street.”

“Good, meet us there, we are to proceed to site 16. Out.”

The two closed their blast shields and headed down the alley towards the street. The three Preims sat quietly in the loading dock for 15 minutes. Then Dannis motioned for them to move out. No one said a word for the 2 hours it took to get back to base camp. They quietly and quickly gathered what they needed and headed off to another area of the city, some 20 blocks away, to await pickup from Garrick. Dannis had quietly sent the distress signal to Garrick. Most Conar signals where fleet wide, so that any units near by could come to the aid of those in need. The Priems had modified their signal, so that only Garrick, or other Priems would be alerted. They had 3 hours to get to the pickup site. As they were getting ready to head out, Shyla finally broke the silence.

“Do you think it was Atrius? The ‘Little One’ they were talking about?”

“I don’t know.” Replied Dannis.

“It’s true” Xar said quietly. “We all know it. It was Atrius.”

Dannis and Shyla both stood quietly. Dannis looked around at the camp. “Then I hope he’s enjoying his reward. Because I’m going to kill him.” With that he turned and headed off to the pickup site.

Atrius lay quietly looking at the ceiling. He remembered the klisks, the firefight, even remembered seeing his arm get ripped to shreds. But he especially remembered dying. It wasn’t painful. Or peaceful. It wasn’t anything, just death. He was surprised by that. Atrius didn’t really hold to any type of religious belief. Growing up with the Conar, who’s only religion was the military, never presented himself with much to choose from anyway. He had always thought that there was some purpose, some place a being would go to when they died. It was this hope that kept him looking at the ceiling. It wasn’t exactly the type of ceiling you’d expect in the afterlife. Infact, if he wasn’t so sure he was dead, he’d say it looked just like the ceiling of a basement room in a dilapidated building. And come to think of it, he wasn’t impressed with the afterlife. It was cold and dirty, and certainly not what the afterlife should be. Or at least what he thought it should be.

“You are awake. Good”. The deep voice came from his left. He tried to look at the voice, but as soon as he started to move, intense pain shot through his left side. He was pretty sure he shouldn’t be able to feel that, what with him being dead and all. He was beginning to think that dying was getting the raw end of deal.

“Move as little as possible. You are very weak”. The voice again.

“Where am I?”

“Where do you want to be?” responded the voice.

“I want to not be dead.”

“Well, congratulations are in order.”

“I’m not dead?”

“I would think not. It would make this conversation almost impossible for you.” Atrius thought for a moment. Impossible for you. What did that mean? He tried to sit up again, and again the pain forced him onto his back.

“Please lay still. We have very little time.”

“What do you mean?” Atrius couldn’t see the origin of the voice, and was beginning to get rather irritated by this fact.

“You need to listen to what I will tell you.”

“But…”

“Please stop asking questions.” Atrius could feel the power in the voice. Whoever it was wasn’t asking, but commanding him to be quiet. And along with the command came the sickening feeling that Atrius couldn’t have talked if he wanted to.

“Yes, I can stop you from talking. I can do many things. I would like to say that I saved your life, but fortunately for me, your Gargonan genetical imprint seems to have taken care of that for you.” Atrius could hear the owner of the voice moving. It wasn’t as large as a Klisk, but he was still very nervous as to who, or what, had such power over him.

“You will be found today.” Atrius tried to ask him by who, but again found that he could not speak.

“It doesn’t matter. You will be found.” The voice answered. Atrius was beginning to wonder if he really was dead after all. A shadow cast from some light source, slowly slid across his face. A moment later Atrius was looking at a large Conar, standing over him. There was something familiar about him, but Atrius couldn’t place it.

“You do not know me” answered the voice. “Now I will give you what help I think you deserve. Those who will find you will lead you to your destination.”

Atrius had no idea as to who or what he was talking about.

“No, I suppose you do not know. But if you are lucky, you may learn someday”. The Conar looked down at Atrius.

“Now, time to go.” At this, the room began to swim. Atrius could feel the concrete beneath him engulf him as if he were falling into a pool of water. He could feel the cold, wet, liquid soaking into his clothes, slowly swallowing him whole, and as he went further down into the murky black, he could still see the Conar standing above him. “Atrius. One last thing, breathe.”

He sat up, gasping for air. He was in the bottom of the elevator shaft, lying chest deep in water that had collected at the bottom. The mysterious Conar was nowhere to be seen. Nor was he in the room that he had awakened to not more than 5 minutes earlier. He could see light coming into the shaft up on what he assumed was the ground floor. The doors and walls were riddled with bullet holes. He could see the hole that he had made when he was killed. Killed. It was weird to think. He had died, he was sure. But here he was, alive at the bottom of what should have been his tomb. He tried to get up, but the pain came.

“Damn. I was hoping that had gone with all the other stuff.” Atrius muttered to himself. He fumbled for his medical field pack, which hung on his left thigh. It took him twenty minutes to get it open, seeing as he was radically hampered due to the loss of his arm. He pulled out a Conar standard medical injection kit, and gave himself a shot in the thigh. It didn’t take long for him to feel the pain numbing, and eventually leaving all together. It took him another 15 minutes to find some discarded electrical wire to wrap his mangled arm to his side, and then he set about finding a way out of the elevator shaft.

The lobby was covered in bright daylight when he finally found his way out. He was surprised at the amount of dust in the lobby. He could still make out the markings from that fateful night, but there was a thin layer of dust that covered everything. He thought that maybe he had been down in the shaft for a day, but he was beginning to think that it was much longer.

“Well, I'm pretty sure I won't be getting a cab”, he muttered to himself. He quietly crept to the front window, taking some shelter from some old clothes racks piled up near what used to be the front of the store. There was no movement on the street. Not that he was expecting any. There wasn't any report of activity here for months. Of course there weren't any reports on Klisks being here either, and he remembered how that turned out. He sat quietly, not because he was waiting for anything, more because it was peaceful. He saw the small rodents busying themselves in their hunt for food. He listened to the birds flitting in and out of the large skeletons of the monoliths that were once the downtown financial center. When he finally did come around to doing something, he was pretty sure that he was alone. He got up quietly and walked out the door. He stood there in the shade for a moment, and then quietly headed in the direction of the Preim camp.

It took him an hour to walk to the camp. It was empty. He hoped that meant Dannis had gotten the others out. He spent 15 minutes looking around for any sign that Dannis might have left, some clue that was meant only for him, but found nothing. He slumped down on some debris and for the first time acknowledged that he was alone. They thought he was dead, and they weren't going to come back for him.