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Glassport
He walked into the main computer terminal, taking his place with a cup of tea.
Without a prompt, screens depicting the video recordings of the last few days appeared. In Thermion, Tagen Enterprises' headquarters was on fire, and the firefighters were having a difficult time putting it out. A massive mob was gathered around the Republic's Top Hundred Plaza, two kilometers in every direction, preventing entry. The Union had tighter control over its business conglomerates, but it didn't stop mass strikes and protests.
Business life on the planet had ground to a halt.
Kael's livestream had shown to the people that the idea of companies ruling a world wasn't simply a dystopic fantasy. Politicians could be bought. Laws could be subverted. They could be screened at all times and would be unaware.
He threw his head back, barking out a sharp laugh.
"They are protesting us too, right?" he asked, smiling, stirring his tea. Given the size and wealth of Alteran, it would be unavoidable for the protests to miss it.
Another screen popped up. A crowd, far smaller than any other, was outside the headquarters of his company, waving signs. Given there was no one inside and it was built out of necessity, the location didn't serve any purpose.
"Release a statement. Include the taxes we paid, how we didn't receive any grants, etc. Don't forget our non-involvement in politics as well."
"Done."
"Great. Let's continue with the singularity reactor."
—
Taglion
Outskirts of the Dwarftree Forest
The cold, crisp morning air of the forest did wonders for her lungs. Eight hours were left for the rupture, and she was finally on-site to assume field command.
She fixed the strap of her helmet, walking towards the commanding officer of the operation. Barricades and gun encampments surrounded the arrival point. Air patrols were circling above, and she saw the
"Sir," she greeted the captain without saluting per the battlefield conditions. Silene and Argyle followed the lead, waiting.
The captain, a head shorter than her, nodded back. "Lieutenant, welcome to Taglion. How was the trip?"
"Smooth as it can be, sir," she said. A transport plane and then a helicopter ride were about as good as it got in military life.
Teleportation made it all slow.
"We already got everything set up. Artillery, mortars, and close air support. Switch your channel to ten-twelve for field command access," the captain said, getting the main business out of the way.
"Yes sir," she replied, twisting the small button on her radio to adjust the channel. She gave out her ID number and received acknowledgment of access.
"How are you holding up with all this hero business?" He asked offhandedly, eyes on the rupture that would arrive hours later.
She smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. "I am managing it."
"Don't hesitate to stand up to the higher-ups. They'll work you to the bone otherwise," he said. She wasn't the first hero to catch the Central Command's eyes. She wouldn't be the last one.
"Understood, sir."
"Then you have the field command. Sergeant Chandley will inform you of the details," he said, heading for the helicopter.
"Ma'am," the sergeant nodded, holding out a tablet for her.
"Sergeant."
—
She leaned on the tree, her helmet pushing the branches aside. The dwarf trees, barely the size of the average human, were a curiosity. They had roots, barks, and all the necessary parts to be classified as a tree. But none ever grew beyond two meters at most.
They too weren't originally from this universe.
She had already inspected the preparations. There wasn't anything out of order, and the units were as ready as they could be. Which meant five more hours of sitting and waiting. She couldn't contact anyone during the operation because of one too many reckless civilians in the past.
"Ma'am. They set up an area for sleeping bags. There are spares if you want."
"Argyle, people think I am a hero, but what I am is a trouble magnet. I'd rather not push my luck."
"True. First a dragon, then those bugs. You always came out on top though; that's why we think you are a hero."
"I got lucky both times."
"Luck is a skill too. One that I hope we'll find some of as well."
"Don't worry Argyle. I am sure you will."
—
"The rupture is forming," Scout-1 said, his voice distorted by the radio interference the dimensional instabilities caused.
"All ranged fire support be ready," she ordered, already behind the barricade. She raised her weapon, flicking the safety off, waiting. The sight she had seen dozens of times repeated once more as the rupture formed. Its size was no bigger than the miniature trees surrounding them for kilometers.
She counted to sixty three times, measuring the time.
Nothing.
"Three-minute mark, no arrivals."
"Looks like an empty one," Argyle said, sighing.
"Don't lower your guard," she warned. Until the rupture was closed and gone, it was a danger.
Though they were fortunate this time. The rupture began to close, collapsing on itself at the edges like a wound, shrinking until there was nothing left. "Command, rupture is closed. No arrivals," she said, flicking her safety on.
"Uhh, ma'am," Argyle said, pointing at where the rupture had formed and closed. She walked to his side, seeing an anomaly that wasn't visible from her angle. The space where the rupture had appeared was buckling inwards. When looked at from a certain point, the images of the trees and the sky were stretching like a painting in rain.
"Command, there is an anomaly."
"Anomaly?"
"Never seen it before. It is as if the space is being dragged into a single point."
"Standby for orders."
"Ma'am?" Chandley asked.
"Everyone keep your heads down," she ordered, watching the anomaly. Eleven tense seconds later, it erupted, plunging the entire containment area into darkness.
Next thing she knew, she was falling.
—
Unknown Planet
She came to her senses with a gasp.
Her blurry eyes saw the dark floor first. Her hands felt the cold metal next. She pushed herself up, feeling her right arm flare in pain. She rolled on her back with a curse stuck behind her lips, cradling the limb.
"Tomoe, are you alright?" Silene called. She turned her head towards the origin of the sound. Metal bars, metal walls, a dim light, and not even a place to sleep on.
She was in a cell.
"Silene? What the hell happened?" she asked, feeling her arm throb.
"The anomaly pulled everyone through. You got knocked out when you fell. The locals arrested us," she said.
"Shit."
"Yeah. I tried to explain the situation to them, but the language barrier is a problem. Also, they aren't the type to play nice," she said, licking her lips.
Tomoe narrowed her eyes. "What did they do?"
"Oh, you know, just a busted lip because I spoke gibberish to them."
"What's the headcount?" she asked. Hopefully they weren't separated. It would make escape and rescue more difficult.
"Everyone's here."
"Ma'am. What are we going to do? The anomaly closed behind us. How do we get home?" Argyle asked. She could hear him hyperventilating.
"Can we even do that?" Another trooper asked from across her cell.
Her lips tightened at the pain. "First we try to initiate peaceful contact with the locals. After that, we'll see."
She heard a whirring sound, forcing herself up. The locals were aliens, a detail Silene had forgotten to include.
They were beautiful.
Three of them, all snow white, tall and lithe, walked into the cells. Their skin was flawless, the kind humans would spend thousands of aurels to achieve and fail to. By human standards, they were androgynous. Heart-shaped faces with soft edges were warped by the sharp glares.
Their eyes, though, were the most striking part. A rainbow of colors danced in their eyeballs, with no visible pupils or irises.
The white robes they wore, covering everything beneath their heads, seemed more ceremonial than military. Then again, she was judging it by her knowledge of clothing, which could be entirely opposite to that of the aliens.
Two held rifles, gray, similar to her Z-12, but with digital screens on it. The muzzles rested on their left shoulders, while the one in the middle only had a pistol.
Compared to his ethereal look, the alien's voice was harsh and gravelly, as if he were grating rocks in his throat. He barked at her with words she did not recognize.
"I am Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura, Rupture Intervention Corps, from planet Haven. We have arrived in this world by accident. We have no hostile intentions," she said. Her words would be just as unintelligible to them as their words were to her. What she tried to do was to convince them through her gentle, smooth tone and her stance.
Hands open with palms facing forward, one foot slightly behind the other and knees bent partially. She turned her body a bit to the side while maintaining a steady, confident eye contact.
The textbook example of a non-hostile stance to de-escalate the situation.
That is, by human standards.
The one in the middle barked at his subordinates. The said alien raised a gloved hand, pressing his earpiece, and his cell door opened. Two of them wrapped their arms around hers, dragging her away.
—
For all the racial differences that existed between her and the aliens, the interrogation room was similar to what one could find in Haven. An empty room with a chair, her hands were tied at the back with thick, metal cuffs. Given the state of her arm, tears had welled up in her eyes at the forced movements.
The same alien spoke to her again.
"As I said, I am Lieutenant Tomoe Nishimura," she began in the same soothing tone. Only, the alien didn't seem interested in hearing it again. The back of his hand slapped her face to the side.
She blinked, feeling the sting.
"Ouch," she muttered with a roll of her eyes. It appeared she was in for that kind of an interrogation.
They were either very irrational or very xenophobic people. She assumed the aliens didn't care about the fact that they couldn't understand one another. Each time she tried to relay her peaceful intentions, it was met with violence.
She considered her options.
She was elastic enough to get out of the chair and slide between her cuffed arms to be in a fighting position. She could neutralize all three with the element of surprise. The problem was her unit. The cells were controlled through a central location. In the one minute and fifty eight seconds the soldiers took to bring her here, she counted twenty guards.
She was good but not that good.
Any attempt to escape would end in someone's death. It would have been worth trying under normal circumstances. Her unit wasn't the first one to disappear because of a rupture. None had ever returned.
Thairon, though, would send rescue.
While their relationship wasn't exactly official—not boyfriend and girlfriend yet—she didn't think he'd simply leave her here. She just had to hold on for long enough.
She grunted again as a punch landed on her chest.
—
Earth
The Deep Lunar Base
As the drones, used by the corps to ensure their security since humans were liable to betrayal, turned on everyone, he ran. He was cackling with each step, reaching speeds beyond what an ordinary human could react to.
"Hey Doc, how are you holding up?" he asked the old man, whose breathing was labored inside the pocket dimension he created. The old man, creator of the central control system, wasn't in good condition in the first place. Three decades of imprisonment had taken its toll on him.
"I'm fine," he replied, a serene smile on his face.
"You sure?"
"I fixed my greatest mistake. I can die in peace," he muttered. He expected to rot in that cell his whole life. To be rescued by a human from another universe who simply wanted to end the corporations because they were evil wasn't on his agenda.
He welcomed it, though.
Kael turned his attention ahead. A rocket was heading straight at him. It wouldn't harm him, not at all, but he couldn't let the disrespect stand. The spacetime continuum bent in an instant, causing the rocket to flip its course, heading straight back to the soldier who had fired.
The said soldier didn't panic, simply lowering the launcher and hanging his head down, shoulders slumped. The explosion was one of the many inside the base, ripping the metal walls apart, creating a small tremor.
He jumped through the smoke, opening a portal back to the puppet emperor's bunker, and disappeared. His haunting laughter was all that was left behind.
—
The Emergency Bunker
He rolled with the momentum, jumping to his feet with arms spread up.
The emperor, who was lounging on the sofa, yelped.
"You are back."
"Yep," he said, bringing the old man out of the pocket dimension, laying him on one of the empty sofas.
His breathing was so shallow he struggled to see his chest rise and fall.
"God," he breathed out, "Is that him?"
"Yeah. Turns out they had him imprisoned in an asteroid prison on the fringes of the empire," he said. Busting Jacob Turner out was easy. No one expected someone like him to appear after all.
"Does that mean?"
"That we did it? Of course." Jacob had the foresight to hide a driver with a virus specifically written to take the system down right inside the mainframe itself. He simply had to defend the old man until he assumed control.
He stumbled back, falling on his chair.
"Young man," Jacob called, barely a whisper, eyes still closed. "I don't know who you are, but thank you."
"Don't worry about it, old man. Just rest, you earned it," he said. Minute by minute, his breathing got slower and slower until he stopped. He had long turned the drone off, letting the old man take his last breaths in peace.
"What now?"
"The drones are slaughtering everyone that is a part of this system knowingly. The rest is up to the people and you," he said, opening a portal, stretching his arms, the freshly deceased body floating behind him.
—
He didn't trust anyone not to dig Jacob's grave up for one reason or the other. Instead, he boarded one of the ships. Ripping out a torpedo's warhead, he rested the body inside, sending him to the sun.
He barely knew him for a couple of hours but already knew Jacob found sunlight to be beautiful. It was extreme, of course, but not like he was alive to object.
He turned the drone on again, displaying the destruction raging over Earth and its moon.
"Huh?" he said, reading the message the drone was displaying. It was sent millions of times. A unit of RIC soldiers was swallowed by an anomalous rupture. The viewers were asking him for a rescue.
"Sure," he said, falling silent as he read another message, this one from his brother.
"Retrieve the RIC troops immediately," the message said.