Cath

Song Reference time

My oxygen's goneeee, awayyyyy

Closer, to closure
So take this out of me
Take anything you want
Cuz I'll still bleed, I'll still breathe
Fading thinner but still, it's haunting me
I can't find the words to say to the angels
That took you from me.

But three words, three words
My oxygen's goneeeee

The Cradle

595 nodded placidly along as Vreta discussed the mission, idly massaging her bum and inner thighs over the top of her shorts. But soon, her facial expression turned hard and she stared coldly at Vreta when he began describing something to her. A darkened room? The Director-General? Was he talking about the Institute? He couldn’t possibly know about that!

...Unless...

595 recalled the jumble of strange scenes that’d played out immediately after she’d looked inside the Navigator’s head. Before they’d turned into those squid things, she’d seen something as if she were Vreta. It’d felt like a dream in its brevity, with a long time crunched into a few seconds. But it was really as if she’d felt those emotions herself. Could that have been an actual memory, rather than a construct of her own making? 595 supposed it was possible. She tried to remember the events that’d unfolded, and found she could still clearly recall.

And if she’d received one of Vreta’s memories as her own, could he have received one of hers in return? The prospect of this giant lizard seeing through her eyes made 595’s skin crawl.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The Agent calmly picked up her water bottle and took a big drink. “Are you sure you’re not just imagining things? Fantasising about me and my life?" She smirked. "Turn around, I'm going to take a shower.”

The Cradle

595 had a lot to think about after the operation. She’d been taught from ancient texts, like everyone else. No one could deny her fanaticism for the cause. Yet, her role as sin-eater required a certain open-mindedness, to avoid compromising the mission. It was this thread of assimilation with Outremer at large that pulled at the back of her mind. Something was different between what she’d seen today and everything she’d been told before.

She’d checked Dr Lang was alright after the bumpy extraction. The scientist had seemed badly shaken, and for good reason. 595 had long since been desensitised to stressful situations like the rig falling off a cliff, but she was aware that many of these academics had led relatively sedentary lives until the last few months. The Agent had made sure they were accessing the support they needed, then retired to her quarters to fuck a crewmate and then meditate.

The Agent was holding a Dragon Squat in the middle of her room, low to the floor and completely motionless with her eyes closed when there was a knock at the door. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at her armour, which stood to attention in front of her with its visor down. “Answer it.” She ordered calmly.

The suit of armour padded silently to the door and unlocked it. It swished quietly open, and 595 could see her opposite number standing in the entryway. Already? The guy was insatiable. “What a pleasant surprise, Vreta’Sori! Come on in.” 595 ladled on the syrup, seamlessly exiting the squat and warming down her fiery muscles. “That was a close one, huh? Nothing like a bit of skydiving to make you feel alive.”

The Cradle

Andersen looked curiously at Rareth, then directed an eyebrow at her team.

“Well…it could be these signals have always been transmitting, just hidden.” One of her chiefs hypothesised. “Like a sleeper cell, waiting for the activation sequence.”

Andersen nodded, then turned back to Rareth. “My instructions are to stay with the asset until it’s safely back on Outremer. In sixty seconds i’m going to report this new info to my superiors, who will undoubtedly want to investigate. Do you want me to recommend a joint operation?”

The Cradle

Captain Andersen stood in the centre of the bridge with her arms crossed. She was surrounded by a swirling mass of hurried staff. Half of them were working with the ship’s AI to close the Barb off to further cyber infiltrations, and assess the extent of the hack. The other half were working with the Rothians to identify the source of the signal.

From what she understood, whatever scanned them had been achingly sophisticated and efficient, even by Rothia’s lofty standards. The signal also appeared to originate from extremely far away. As Captain, she had duly informed Fleet Command of the intrusion. She wasn’t in the Need To Know loop, but Andersen suspected most of the Outreman Navy was now on high alert and moving into position around their homeworld. If it hadn’t been already, that is.

For now, they were on their own with the Rothians, with zero Navy support on-station. Measures of last resort had been unlocked on her panel. Nothing could take the Barb in one piece, those were her orders.

Now, she was waiting with bated breath for more information. Rareth stood nearby, looking intimidating as usual. Andersen had half a mind to request she vacate the bridge, but was mindful of strained relations at the moment. “Ma’am, we’ve narrowed down the vector.” One of her chief engineers called.

“Well?”

“Gurguris XII. Middle of nowhere, ma’am.”

“Put it up.”

A tight cluster of suns, strewn with galactic debris, appeared on the vast 3D holo in front of them. It lay far beyond the bounds of Human and known Rothian civilisation.

“Any idea what’s scanning us?”

“Not yet, we’re working on it.”

“Ok. Any advance on how much they got?”

Another science officer answered, from the other side of the Bridge. “We’re still tracing the steps they took, ma’am. But it looks like they got to most of the top network.” Andersen grimaced. "Keep looking."

The Cradle

Name: Agent 595

Species: Human

Gender: Female

Age: UNKNOWN

Appearance

Armour

Nationality: UNKNOWN

Weapons and/or equipment: UNKNOWN

Backstory: UNKNOWN

The Cradle

Such was the intimacy of the simulation, that Freyr’s feeling of anguish carried over to her real body. It was if she’d just sneezed in one place and found herself in another. She saw the harsh lights of the Barb’s staging area above, with a drone hovering in the corner of her vision. Quite like the rig, she could hear klaxons sounding in the distance.

When her vitals indicated it was safe, the drone lowered slightly and freed her from the harness. The familiar faces of a junior researcher and Masgard Xandrus loomed over her, cutting out the light. “Dr Lang, are you alright?” Masgard asked, giving her hand a light squeeze. At first she struggled to speak, her throat bone-dry. “The...uplink.” She croaked, carefully levering her body into a sitting position on the table. Someone handed her a bottle of water, which she drank greedily.

“The uplink!” She shouted once she was able. She took Masgard’s hand and jumped down unsteadily onto the floor.

“We tried to retrieve the full packet as soon as it became available, but the console went dark before we could.” Dr Zimmermann called back, from the holo-map across the room. Several of the scientists who had previously been in the simulation huddled around him, but looked to Freyr for direction. She felt her face and fists crumple up. “No!” She snarled, swiping a toolbox off a work table and onto the floor. It opened with a crack and metal tools clattered out.

She crouched on the floor with her head in her hands, trying to gather some thoughts. After a moment, Freyr reached into her pocket for another pill, and watched it jiggle in her shaking hand before swallowing it down.

“Everyone is out. Cut the link NOW!” Someone commanded over the loudspeaker. “Someone tried to hack us.” Masgard offered helpfully, crouching next to Freyr and patting her back. “Come on, let's get you sat down so someone can take a look at you.”

As Freyr accepted help getting shakily back to her feet, she spotted 595 levering her legs over the side of her harness table nearby. The Agent nodded at her, seemingly distracted.

“Rig self-destruct complete. Closing connection with the FOB now.” Dr Wetherall announced.

The Cradle

“NO, I’M SO CLOSE!” Freyr pleaded, struggling in Nirann’s vice-like grip. “YOU CAN’T DO THIS!” She didn’t have time to say exactly how close she was to a breakthrough, because the transit station activated and her avatar was atomised.

---

”I’m going inside, check everyone is out. Not convinced we’re getting through. Transit out, i’ll be right behind you.” 595 announced over comms. Using the rig’s spin to her advantage, she dropped onto the underside of the rig’s upper outside deck. Holding onto the metal mesh flooring, she swung round so the upside-down bulkhead door was in front of her.

Just like on the monkey bars, 595 grabbed onto the mesh again and maneuvered herself over to the door. She hit the door release with her foot as the rig began righting again; it was speeding up. She swung herself inside and fell onto one of the walls, then to the floor.

595 quickly stood up and her magnetic soles activated. She moved through the airlock into the common room. Loose furniture and supplies crashed around as the rig careered towards the ground. Alarms and red flashing lights assaulted the senses. Several of the wall panels were sparking violently.

595 deflected a chair and studied the floor. A mobile transit station had been set up in here. “Anyone here?” 595 called, in person and via the team channel.

She moved quickly through the gangway towards the bridge. It was empty as well, with another temporary transit station recharging from a recent use. The central console was mostly dead, with most extraneous functionality having been damaged. “Dr Lang! It’s me.” The Agent called over the ruckus. No response again, just the shaking from the outer hull and clanking of loose articles inside.

Suddenly, one small workspace lit up green for success. 595 saw [UPLINK SUCCESSFUL] and moved over to it. Not all of what she saw made sense, but she understood enough to realise this was important. And it hadn’t been touched yet. Resting a finger on the holo, 595 downloaded as much as she could and stored it securely.

Once she was satisfied, the Agent pulled out her sidearm and emptied a dozen shots into the command console. Sparks burst out all over the room.

595 wasted no time moving to the ‘Captain’s Panel’ by the cockpit door next. She could see through the windows there that the ground was alarmingly close. 595 quickly pulled a physical access stick from one of her pockets and plugged it into the panel. She keyed in a separate string manually, then activated the self-destruct sequence.

Holstering her pistol, 595 moved into the transit station field and prepared to exfil.

The Cradle

595 jumped off the side and quickly set her sights on the ailing rig. It had already lost some of its wheels, and was spinning through outcrops about a quarter of the way down the mountainside. She could its anti-gravity thrusters straining under the incredible pressure. The worm was hot on its tail, but had elected for a slightly more controlled descent, sliding down the side with the rest of the avalanche.

It would be on them in seconds if the rig got stuck, or if it reached the bottom without exploding, she figured. What a dumb idea this was. But she had to make sure Dr Lang got out; she needed her. “Come in, come in. Anybody left aboard the rig?” 595 called over comms. No immediate response. She could still see lights on and engines firing, which meant someone was probably still inside.

The Agent tucked her arms and legs in to assume an aerodynamic shape, and with a muffled boom her jump jets fired again. Her HUD readout alerted her that she only had one more charge left.

She sailed past the worm, aiming for the top of the rig. Before she could touch down though, it span violently over to the other side. 595 hit the side of the rig like a brick and scrabbled for a hand hold. She looked up and could see the mangled top deck gantry right in front of her. The rig carried on turning over. She was going to be on the underside of this giant flying object in a few seconds. Even now, her legs were beginning to float out underneath her.

The Cradle

“And where might that be, exactly!” 595 asked, as the vast cube they were standing on slowly drifted free of the mountain with an eerie creaking sound. The rocky shoulder that it’d been embedded in began collapsing into a wide avalanche. They were stranded.

The worm had uncovered about a hundred metres of its body, and was beginning to plummet down the now-sheer face of the mountain after the rig. It gnashed its mandibles and sprayed acid from its jaws. 595 assessed their options and made a snap decision.

“We need to go after them! This whole place is falling apart! Follow me!”

She lowered her hands and grabbed her gun off its mount. Energy still crackled around her armour now that she’d tapped into the cube’s power. She ran out from under the plasma umbrella and jumped, exploding up and through the vicious cloud of killer creatures above them. They dispersed around her, terrified.

Who configured this jump pack?! The Agent thought as she frantically windmilled through the snowy air. Dozens of talons raked her suit and blood sprayed all over her visor. She started firing her weapon indiscriminately in all directions, until the ground zoomed to meet her.

The Agent dropped, rolled and carried on firing, running towards the edge of the cube.

---

Without enough power, the anti-grav couldn’t stop the rig from crunching hard against the side of the mountain. One corner hit a solid section, and the rig began turning over. “Everyone inside, now!” Thebes commanded. “Kjartan! Get out of there, that’s an order!” He yelled at the Norse, who was still shooting at the worm.

Freyr was engrossed in the console, sweat running down her face. The Rübezahl was racing down the side of the mountain, on the inside, trying to get back to the mothership. She was frantically trying to make a connection that would allow her to extract it and the last bit of data. “Come on...Come ON!” Around her, loose articles began sliding around the floors, walls, and into the air.