Dark Energy by carlsojos

Chapter 22

Aware of an ever growing horde behind us, we hurried back to the entrance. The final hundred yards was a dead sprint as even monsters we had never seen earlier join the chase. As I feel like my lungs were about to burst, we finally leap into the bright daylight of the desert sun. Four people have cleared the ruins.

Charges primed!

Permission to detonate, Dora?

Do it! As we dived to the ground, a thundering boom erupts from behind us, and debris fly overhead. In a few seconds, it was over.

I get up and look at the rubble where the tunnel once stood. There's no way anything could crawl through that. We made it! I look over to the others. Akkosua is still on the ground, wheezing.

...No more...of this fighting shit...okay?...If I liked having...my ass on the line...I'd be a fucking hunter...

Ray checks to make sure he remembered all his weapons. Speaking of which, Etirn, you said there's one more part to this job?

Yeah. Let's talk about it at a table. We make our way to the deserted cafeteria, and Etirn lays out a strange selection of green objects, all with golden lines on the surface running between strange little structures of various shapes. I bend over to take a closer look at the artifacts. Make sure you don't touch anything.

Dora takes a seat. Now that we've gone through the effort to acquire these trinkets, could you explain what they do?

Etirn folds his arms. I could go on and on about the subject, and the individual features of each part, but the short version is, I don't know.

Akkosua almost spills her drink on the table. WHAT?!

But, if experience holds true, and if these are put back together exactly like I took them apart, we can get it to spit out the commands that would make the glass portion of the capsule work.

I ask, But without the rest of the machine, how can we see the results?

I'm still working on that. For now, I'm gonna put it all away. Etirn gingerly puts everything into a backpack. I notice a strange metal liner inside it. He closes it and hands it to me. A gift.

Thanks? I don't know what I could do with it.

Etirn pulls out a map and points at a small town. It seems surrounded by insurmountable mountains. You need to get it to Tonoe. Blades and Ackland will go with you.

Akkosua clearly wasn't happy about this. Why me? Can't I go back home?

I don't have any more cartridges for my weapon, I need to make more. The University has a remote campus up in Tonoe for dangerous, secret, or otherwise sensitive research. That bag is far too valuable to send with a random courier.

What about Dora? I think Akkosua is trying to grab any excuse she can.

Dora shakes her head. I need to go back to the Principal. Somehow I need to explain how we went from urgently needing more resources to destroying access to the ruins in not even three days' time. I don't envy her position.

I look over to Etirn. I don't have the supplies to make cartridges out here. I also have a couple projects in Piata that need my attention. I can't discuss them any further, though. Marika, radio me once you make Tonoe. This should cover travel expenses. Etirn hands me a notable wad of mesetas.

I will. I stash the money away in a jacket pocket.

Until next we meet. Etirn and Dora get up, and after Dora yells at her workers to tell them to tear down camp, they continue south out the city gates.

On your orders, ma'am. Ray gets up. I use a Monomate to stop my pain, and lead the way out the town gate, south, on the other side of the mountain range we followed from Mile. This time, there was a breeze coming off a nearby coast to ease the heat of the desert, so we made good time, arriving at a town an hour after nightfall.

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