In the secluded corner of the base, the air was still heavy with the scent of the Plague Doctor's smoke. John looked at his companions, his brow furrowed. "So, what now? We just made an agreement with a man who can dismantle a Juggernaut with his bare hands."
Laura shrugged, resting a hand on her hip with her usual nonchalance. "I don't know. We're still alive—that's a start."
Slammer's voice was low and urgent. "Hey, let's not mention a word of this to the Advisor." She turned to walk away but suddenly froze mid-step. She slowly looked back at John, her face draining of color. "John... did you turn off your chest-cam?"
John blinked, patting his tactical vest. "Did I what?"
Slammer didn't answer. Her eyes went wide with realization. She bolted toward the buzzing hive of GDA personnel, leaving John and Laura in the dust. "Hey, wait for us!" John shouted, and the two of them scrambled to keep up with her frantic pace.
Slammer didn't stop until she reached the heavy reinforced doors of the Camera Lab. She burst inside, teeth gritted, expecting to find the Advisor in a rage. Instead, she found him standing perfectly still beside Dr. Hana, staring at a wall of monitors.
"You don't have to tell me, Victoria," the Advisor said, his voice flat.
"Yeah," Dr. Hana added, her voice trembling. "We saw it. All of it."
The Advisor turned around slowly, a heavy sigh escaping his helmet. Without a word, he slammed his fist onto a control panel. "Stop the project!" he roared into the scientist communication tab. "Shut it all down!"
Victoria's breath hitched. "Y-you're listening to the Plague Doctor?"
"I have to," the Advisor said.
"But the goal!" Victoria protested. "The power we were building—"
"Did you not see what happened out there?" the Advisor interrupted, gesturing toward the frozen frames on the monitor. "That... thing... is a guardian of the Relics. We cannot deal with them. If the Relics intervene, we obey. They are the strongest faction in existence. They have the Overseers, the armies, and the Three Titans."
He began to list them, his voice filled with a rare, cold dread: "The Wall Pusher. The Anti-Golem. And the Angelus Vitiosus." He looked at the floor. "I saw John's feed. Our greatest technology was obliterated by a single man's palm. We are outmatched."
John and Laura finally burst into the room, gasping for air. "Slammer, why did you run?" John wheezed.
"Slammer, you fuck!" Laura barked, clutching her side.
Victoria ignored them, looking only at the Advisor. "I thought you were going to hunt us down because of the cam, Advisor."
"Victoria—" the Advisor started.
John and Laura both blinked in unison. "Victoria?" they whispered, realizing they had never heard Slammer's real name spoken by the command.
Before another word could be said, a deafening alarm shattered the silence. The lights in the lab shifted to a violent, pulsing red. The ground beneath them began to heave, bucking like a wild animal. The scientists screamed as monitors fell from their mounts.
Dr. Hana dove for the console, her fingers flying across the keys. "Evacuate now!" she screamed into the base-wide speakers. "Go to the center HQ immediately! This is not a drill!"
Outside, the base was a scene of pure terror. Civilians and soldiers alike were thrown to the ground as the tremors grew stronger, the sound of tearing metal echoing through the halls. Then, as quickly as it had begun, the shaking stopped.
A suffocating silence fell over the room.
John wiped dust from his eyes, his voice a shaky whisper. "Did it... did it stop?"
The Advisor stood tall, his hand hovering over his sidearm. "I guess so—"
A roar suddenly tore through the silence—a sound so ancient and powerful that it seemed to come from the very core of the earth itself.
TO BE CONTINUED
THE NEW REIGN