Age of Space

Darkness was all there was. From the grandest of scales to the tiniest of depths, it immersed the world like thick black ink. In between the darkness, something was taking place, seeing as it was blanketed, it wasn't visible, but vision was not the only sense available. In the middle of the heaving, wheezing, the echoes of shouts and roarings, sat an 18 year old man. Conscious? Maybe. Awake? Most definitely not. The noise, the sensations and the creepingly unsettling feeling of it all, muffled him, kept him that way. You would think one would wake at such noise, yet it all felt so far away, besides there was something else there with him. Someone else.

“It is felt, is it not?” the presence asked. Defining the void.

“The crescendo of conflict gives life its very essence. It defines it, forms it, nurtures it. The fields of strife births true purpose and purpose is not ephemeral, never was”

“What is all this?” Ronin questioned. He but thought it, and it resonated out. The presence didn’t answer for a while. Time slowed down and the noise which was somewhat coherent before became a discordant chorus.

Then, with bounding power, the presence answered back!: “The precipice of purpose, the ladder of ascension, the womb of gods! Many names, now, it is but taint.”

Despite his eidetic memory, it was not only hard to parse the words. The memory of them itself seemed to slip his mind somehow as he tried to remember. They seemed to contain so much more than what was apparent on the surface, it felt as if his own vocabulary and language itself were impotent tools, scratching at something designed for a whole different universe of communication. As he did his best to chase the meaning behind what he just heard, a feeling of smallness overcame him. It was almost as if he was a speck of dust trying to swallow a city, he was simply too insignificant to the weight of this knowledge.

This reminds me of when I inhaled atom spice, did I damage my brain somehow?

As the presence faded, the darkness, which was everything, began retracting back into something, and with something, there was contrast. Brightness started heralding dawn and awareness came with it. The slow discordant noises began speeding up and sensation returned. Pain returned!

As if pulled from the void, Ronin's eyes shot up to a swerving landscape of chaos. An inferno lit up his apartment complex. He’d been blown out of a window he remembered. At least that's what it felt like as he noticed himself laying down amidst wails of pain and ruin. He must have fallen far. His room was on the 5th floor.

Looking up at the burning structure of metal and concrete, the floor with his apartment was set ablaze. The whole thing was swallowed up by the raging flames. As the fire snaked up towards the 6th floor, he could see people looking down from above. Many were rushing out the front door, likely residents from the 4th floor and below. Above the 5th floor, some were climbing up, attempting escape by searching for another path out of the complex. He saw no one on the 5th floor however, there was only flame there, a blazing one at that.

At the edge of his vision, people on the streets were hysterically running back and forth. His vision stabilized and he regained a little of his clarity.

“Sir, are you ok?” A figure looming over him questioned. Ronin tried to respond, but all he managed to get out were coughs and a groan.

“We got a live one here!” The figure shouted, presumably calling for help.

“Just hang in there, there's medical teams on the way.” He began consoling. Ronin didn't need consoling, and he certainly didn’t need a medical team. A medical team would scan his body, take his blood. That could be much more dangerous than getting blown out a window with what he’d gotten involved with. If he was discovered, he might just get executed, but even worse, he could end up as a lab rat for the rest of his life, experimented on until his body couldn’t take it anymore.

“No need.” he managed to get out as he sat up as quickly as possible while trying to act healthy. Just as he sat up, a bright red light flashed past his eyes.

What was that? The red light had been so bright he had to focus to see properly, but when he did, his eyes shot up in shock!

“What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?” The man standing over him asked, confused.

“Y-y-your chest sir..” Was all he managed to get out.

Right in the middle of the man's chest, a 3 cm wide hole had appeared and Ronin could see all the way straight through to the other side. As smoke began rising from the charred opening, he turned around, right where his head had been when he was lying down, a melted pool of metal and concrete had now formed.

Laser based sniper rifle? Was this shot for me!? Ronin rolled out of the way as another shot pierced the man.

“What the-?" Was all the man got out before he began crumbling to the ground.

Another shot flashed!

Ronin needed to find cover. He pushed himself up and began sprinting down the street as a surge of adrenaline washed away the pain. Was something broken after falling down 5 floors out of a window? Probably. Did it matter? Not at the moment! He turned the first corner available.

What in the world is happening?! Did the CLM find out that it was me? That I took from them? Maybe it's because of what happened in district 101? Was it the rooftop bandits? No. The rooftop bandits are not capable of something like this.

A new flash of light broke him out of his thoughts as the smell of burnt meat began rising from his left shoulder.

Argh! There's another sniper. If it was only one guy, I should have been safe after I turned the corner! Have I been surrounded or something? They are clearly after me now, I know that, that's for sure. Ronin looked around.

If he scaled the walls, he’d literally end up as target practice to any willing sniper around. Maybe he could enter another alley? Though, if someone was stationed here, they might have a shooter ready there as well.

He began running up to the forming crowd of gawkers, massing up to go to look at the burning building. These types of "tragedy voyeurs" always came to look when misfortune befell someone else.

Well, this time if they want to look, they can at least share the risk and act as cover! Ronin thought as he bolted towards the forming crowd.

As the shots kept coming, Ronin dove in. He was among them now, but the laser fire didn't stop, and people started dropping. As full-blown panic erupted amidst the crowd, Ronin, fortunately, still only had a burned left shoulder, but this could not go on for much longer. The laser fire would begin hitting him sooner or later as the crowd dispersed. Spotting a manhole, Ronin lunged at it, ripped it open and dove in. Just in time too, as a laser beam began melting the cover right as he slipped down into the sewers.

“…”

As the nauseating stench hit him, he was reminded of district 101. Metal cables ran along the roof and walls as processing plants churned and purified acid water and waste from the tightly packed skyscrapers above.

Quickly accessing his mental palace, he ran down an imaginary corridor where he’d mentally placed his memories of Concordia's maps. Now, where was it? Rapidly shifting through the documents, he slowly came to the realization that, out of the many maps he knew, sewer maps was not something he’d studied.

Nevertheless, he still knew the general direction of the planetary guard station in Ironglades. If anyone could protect him, it was them. They were supposedly in charge of law and order after all.

He started jogging along the wall, staying away from the iron grates covering the foul sewage. He was injured and did not want his wounds getting infected as well. As his adrenaline began declining, the severity of his injuries became more and more evident. The burn on his left shoulder was obvious, but the 5-story fall from his apartment had hurt him good. His jog was janky, the act of breathing hurt and he was pretty sure he was bleeding from the back of his head, though that last injury was a bit hard to check right now.

Wasn’t I in a situation like this just a few weeks ago? Underground structure, few people around, hurt and injured, hunted…

After turning another corner, the sound of metal clanging against metal started to ring along the corridors, his enhanced hearing picked up on people arguing, then… the clangs of metal intensified, it increased in tempo. His pursuers were jogging now.

He could hear two pairs of footsteps ahead of him and three behind. Was there a side tunnel he could enter? A path out? A path clear of the sound of footsteps, clear of whomever was chasing him? Not that he could see.

Continuing on, he scanned frantically for another way out. Anything would do, as long as he didn’t get boxed in, it was enough, he wasn’t greedy. Ending up in a firefight here was the worst possible option he could think of. The corridor system in the sewerage was well lit, there was nowhere to really hide and the corridors were long. Perfect for someone with a ranged advantage.

An eerie tune of a man's whistling echoed along the metallic walls.

“Ooh Ronin? Ooooh Roniiin? You know what you’ve done.”

His golden eyes were now going beyond just frantically searching for an escape. They had become erratic, bloodshot, his heartbeat increased. Was he really surrounded? There had to be another path!

“You’ve got no way-out Ronin. Hah! Do you have any idea how much Argus invested in this operation? He actually said he wanted to make an example of you, you see. Oh… and let’s not even get started on that juicy bounty on your head.”

As the cackling echoes of laughter rang through the tunnels, Ronin could hear more footsteps being added to the mix. How many people were chasing him now? It was 5 before, but now? It had to be over a dozen.

Based on the sound of their footsteps and the average human jogging speed, how much time before there's a confrontation? 5 minutes? No, I probably don’t even have more than 3 minutes before they reach me.

After another minute of janky jogging, he spotted a rusty door. He almost didn’t notice it based on how well it was integrated into the wall. Firmly welded shut and partially painted over, this was clearly not something in active use.

Fuck it

He went for it. Punching with all his might, his fists banged into the wall, the sound of groaning metal rang across the sewer system.

CLANG!

Another punch, then another. He walked back a distance, then ran at full speed, ramming the door with everything he had.

CLAANG!

As rust from the door fell off his right shoulder, he noticed. The door had bent. He could do this. He walked back and did it again. He was putting his body's regeneration to the test, that's for sure.

Come on you rusty piece of junk, just give!

After the 3rd shoulder crash into the old metallic door, the welding finally gave out and snapped, blasting open. What greeted him next was supposed to be darkness, but Ronin's golden eyes could see.

Hidden and forgotten by Ironglades, the city's past revealed itself. Overhangs, rusted pipes, abandoned rails and chopped up halves of skyscrapers covered the landscape. This area was wide, much wider than the sewer. The smell of old dust and rust touched his nostrils.

What could cause someone to just abandon so much of the city? It's like a whole sectioned-off world down here, Ronin wondered in puzzlement as he jumped down the 20-meter drop.

As the thrust from the jetpack assisted landing cleared out the dust surrounding his touchdown zone, it became evident that continuing his janky jogging was out of the question.

The steel jungle around him ran deep. He’d actually landed on an accumulation of steel beams and pipes, supported by buildings and tangled wires. Everything likely having avalanched down from above.

My improved balance should make traversing this easier for me than for whomever is chasing me He thought, then began balancing along whatever seemingly stable beams he could find. Some beams had less rust so hopefully they would hold. He might be screwed, but he was less screwed now than a minute ago!

In the sewers, around an opening in a wall, 15 people were just standing there, frowning, confused and deflated.

“Sir, what do we do now?” one of the men asked.

This did not go as it was supposed to. From the very start, surefire ways of finishing what was supposed to be an easy operation, had somehow failed, again and again. The hit job was supposed to be done shortly after they planted the whole floor with explosives, but the target miraculously survived.

In the highly unlikely scenario that the target did survive. The backup snipers were supposed to finish the job. Easy right? No, not easy, somehow every shot they fired missed. Finally, when the target was perfectly surrounded in the sewers, some never before seen additional path out had revealed itself. Once again, the target had escaped.

I don’t like it… Garnic thought.

There were just too many miraculous coincidences happening back-to-back for something like this to be happenstance.

If it really is random? Is he receiving help of some kind?

He suspected that someone might be out there, influencing the events. Now, blindly unaware, they could all be under the cold gaze of the planetary guard. Besides, if they weren’t targets of the guard already, they would be. They had gone too far for something like this to be swept under the rug with bribes and favors.

“Call the rest of the squads, we’re going in. And have them bring over the spectral glasses so we can see through this damn darkness!” Garnic ordered.

We can’t back out now, Argus will do more than kill us if we fail this. he inwardly shivered.

Time passed by as Ronin made his way through the silent city. He'd gauged the distance between the ground below and the 'roof' above to be at least 300 meters. Railways, likely a technology of the old world covered the steel floor below. In a way this place felt like a time capsule. Above it all he was balancing along beams, pipes and cables. Not an easy feat when you were injured. Having nearly fallen several times, he’d had to use his jet pack to get back on the trail. Having also been forced to activate his jet pack to jump several gaps, his suits fuel supply was now at 50%.

Any and all adrenaline was long gone by now. The weight of his injuries had really begun to sink in. He was not just hurt, he was tired. Most of his near falls had happened just recently and he needed rest. For about 10 minutes now, he’d been looking around for a shelter, but most of what he saw was too degraded to be of any use. As he passed by another building, a new area opened up to his vision and his golden eyes began the scan…

There!

Jumping off a beam, he briefly landed on a thin vertical pipe, sticking up from the depths. It swayed, began to creak and pieces of it started falling off. Swiftly, he jumped off, landing on the terrace of a dilapidated building. He entered the half broken door and… surprisingly, the old building didn't smell too bad.

There were chairs, tables, sofas and food. Really, really old canned food, yuek. He was too tired to look for a better place and this was the best shelter he’d found yet.

This place will have to do, he thought as he began barricading the entrance. Finally, he rubbed out a small lookout hole on the thick dirty windows before laying down.

My whole place burned down. Everything left from mom and dad was in that place. Now I have nothing left. I’m on the run again as well. That's fucked up. I don’t even know who I'm running from. That's even more fucked up.

Looking out of the small, cleared up patch on the window, the sheer immensity of the dark, desolate city became evident. Far off in the distance, an enormous silo complex could be seen. Closer, amidst the broken skyscrapers he could see a wide river flowing towards him.

Wait, that's not a river!

As the "river" got closer, what it actually was, became clearer. Hundreds of thousands of ruddles were storming across the city. Like a horde, the hairless long tongued poisonous rodents, swarmed along the streets, on top of overhangs, along beams and in between wires.

What were they running towards? Heck, how’d they find enough food down here?

Wait, the sewers! Are they eating sewage waste? And they don’t seem to be running towards something, it's almost as if they’re running away. At that moment, Ronin spotted them. Pale humanoid figures were running along the swarm, blending in among the chaos.

What in the world are those things?! It's almost as if they are herding the ruddles!

As the swarm got closer, it eventually reached the building and began passing by the lookout hole on the window. He could hear the animals bumping against the wall, but amidst the chaotic noise there was something else as well…

Knock, knock, knock

Knock, knock, knock

What is that sou-

Right in front of the lookout hole, a pale, eerily human-like, bald head had appeared.

Knock, knock, knock

The light of intelligence blazed clearly in the creature's eyes.

Ronin approached slowly. Not knowing what to do, he knocked back:

Knock, knock, knock

For a moment they just stared at each other, the chaos outside vanishing in front of the weight of this strange interaction. Then the moment passed, and the creature was gone, lost in the storm of ruddles.

What kind of place did I just stumble into?

Garnic looked over his holographic display. They were 105 men strong now. He would not fail again. Literally, everyone that could be called, had been called. Those 105, were now spread out looking for a needle in a haystack.

“Damn kid!” He grunted out before tapping the intercom.

[Role Call!] He shouted into the comms.

[Team 1, ready and waiting.] The soft voice of the team leader of team 1 answered.

One by one the teams responded back. Finally, the last team called in.

[Team 21 here, what's the deal!?] The loud gruff voice of their team leader spoke back.

All the teams were supposed to have reported in, but as Garnic looked over his display, he noticed he'd missed one. Throughout this entire exercise, one of the teams had been suspiciously quiet.

[Team 3, Do you copy?]

[Team 3, Respond!]

Heavy breathing could be heard at the other end of the line. Garnics holoscreen still showed team 3 as green, that is, the team hadn’t signaled they were in any form of distress.

[Stand by.] He finally heard back.

[Team 3, What's your status?]

What in the world is going on? He could clearly hear the team leader. He was still there. He still had access to his comms. What could cause them to not answer?

Finally, Garnic's holoscreen signaled that the team was ready to respond as the green dot hovering beside the team 3 call sign began blinking.

[Boss, I thought it was a river, but it's a horde. A damn stellarian horde!]

Garnic rubbed his head in frustration.

[Team 3, Clarify.] He all but shouted over the intercom.

[Ruddles boss, tens of thousands of them. My team got swarmed, I'm all that's left.]

Chaos erupted over the intercom as Garnic eventually had to forcibly silence the other teams.

Damn lack of professionalism, why did I even expect a bunch of criminals to follow protocol. Not like we are risking our lives or anything, he sarcastically remarked to himself.

With only Garnic having speaking access over the intercom now, it was time to get these idiots in line:

[Listen, this goes to every team. When your team is in distress, flip the switch on your display, so we all know what's going on. If you don’t, all hell could break loose on your end and not a single team would know. That means. No. Help. Will. Come. So, follow the damn protocol from now on. Now, Team 3, continue.]

He gave what little remained of team 3 back their access.

[COUGH! Sorry ’bout that boss, I'm transferring my location over right now. The swarm though, it was so big the spectral glasses couldn’t cover it. All I know is the swarm was headed towards me before I ran.]

After receiving the information, it dawned on Garnic. Team 3 had scouted far ahead, directly in front of them.

A horde he called it… If it really is as large as he claims, we’re all in the shitter!

[All teams scatter! Seek shelter immediately, the horde is coming straight at us!]

Garnic restored comms access. As the teams started scrambling towards safety. He looked over his display. They remained green.

A minute passed, suddenly, team 5s dot turned orange and began blinking.

[Team 5, report.]

[Sir, we’ve lost 2 members! The horde just suddenly swarmed us. Me, Hugin and Dappie have barricaded ourselves in an abandoned building, but I don’t think seeking shelter will be of much use. They’re breaking through the barricades as we speak!]

Garnic immediately cut team 5s access to comms. The last thing they needed now was panic and confusion. Seeking shelter was the only option. They neither had the terrain nor the right weaponry to fight a whole horde of those things. Having subordinates question his direct orders over the comms? If he allowed that, he might as well call off the mission right now and be done with it.

As he climbed along the abandoned pipes, searching for shelter, he snuck a peek at the display. 7 new teams now showed their status as orange, BIP, another one. This team showed their status as red, meaning only one member or less remaining.

Out of a total of 21 teams, almost half have lost members. Blast it, we haven't even caught up to the boy yet. Garnic was angry before, now that anger was turning into unease.