Chapter 41: Before the Siege

The shuttle Cellica obtained is one that's of a subtle variety, indistinguishable from any other conventional transport shuttles that are operated by the planet's transport system AI. Upon the approach towards the second orbital ring that a base for Absolute Being is located, Valerie even ensured the trajectory of their travels followed what a shuttle would look like for an regional transfers for as long as possible before pulling up and approaching at the last moment.

'I have made sure the secure communication channels are established.' Cellica said before they left, 'I am sorry I couldn't do more, though I have prepared the best surprise for them.'

'All good.' Rydel said, grabbing firmly onto Cellica's shoulders, 'we all have our own roles in this fight, and without your support, we won't have a chance of victory. And plus, I hope your surprise will do what you say it would.'

'I would be fired if it didn't work out, so I hope so too.' Cellica said, while giving both Valerie and Rydel a hug, 'stay safe you too, and take care of Zel.'

'I will protect them.' Torelamri said firmly, 'Ultimate defense.'

The ultimate defense indeed. Rydel thought, and then they hopped onto the shuttle.

Now that they are approaching the coordinates that Zel has sent them in the middle of nowhere, Valerie slowed the ship down to cruising velocity and poked her head around the quarter and asked, 'are you sure Zel wants us here?'

'That's what he said, so...'

Then, Zel morphed into the ship, his feet making a light clank when hitting the solid floor of the shuttle. Rydel spun around, the Lightning Rod on his right hand activated immediately as the blade conjured into his palm. But he halted the blade's tip by Zel's throat.

'Nice to see you too.' Zel greeted and tried hard not to nod towards Rydel so the blade don't actually penetrate his throat. He moved the blade to the side as Rydel retracted the artifact and gave him a hug instead.

'You okay?' Rydel asked, squeezing his friend tightly. He appeared tired, and stressed.

'Yeah, worry about me later.' Zel said before heading towards the cockpit of the cruising shuttle.

'So here's the deal.' Zel explained, 'Elmyra looked like she was placed in a chamber, and she was still in the state of Lock Down after my fight with her in chapter 37, and there appeared to have been some sort of an instrument placed in the room that will directly connect to Elmyra's pod'

Then, he showed a picture that he took which showed the layout of the room, with the pod inclined at angle to vertical and massive medical and high energy equipment filled the rest of the room, all connected together with what appeared to be hastily patched together wiring from the outside, but all of them knew that all of the arrangements are perfectly functional, as that's how Lady Lily operates. Everything that she controls, is under control.

'And the wound remained, which means we can't move her easily.' Zel said, 'she knew what I can do, and the Lock Down system appeared to be geo-locked to the room.'

'So if we move her,'

'She will be dead.' Zel said with a serious look on her face, 'Also, I know the look on Lady Lily's face if she is trying to remove someone else's artifact, but this is not the case here. Perhaps she realized that killing one person will be a lot easier when it comes to obtaining the artifact than extraction.'

'So what are they waiting for? What are they trying to do?'

'I don't know, but since she is still alive, they will need her alive, perhaps for her powers.' Zel said, 'It appeared that Lady Lily has captured somebody else, and that guy was also taken, though he was taken to another area.'

'What's so special about him? Another user?' Valerie asked, 'Another one that we have never seen before, like the Shield?'

'Yeah, a new guy.' Zel said, 'never seen him before. But it looked like he is working at the Marble Casino before he was capture, which is weird cause I thought the Marble Casino is in in the plan.'

Rydel and Valerie exchanged a look. So it appeared that Absolute Being is not exactly operating as flawlessly as they are trying to present it to be. There is a crack here, and perhaps that's what they can exploit.

'What's the plan then?' Rydel asked the group as they gathered all of the known information together.

The reason that Absolute Being are waiting for something could be that they need the help of this new artifact user, and that also explained why they have captured him, despite Zel's suspicions that he was at least no against Absolute Being just prior. Then, for whatever procedure that Absolute Being planned to run on Elmyra that will require the power of two or more artifacts, Lady Lily will heal Elmyra just before then. That will be the best time for Zel to strike and save her. However, if only that's the case, then Rydel and Valerie wouldn't even need to be here to begin with.

'When I strike, it will be right before they enact their final plan, which will also be when they are most alert. As you know, I am most vulnerable when activating my artifact, and especially warping both myself and some other things will take some time.' Zel laid out his weaknesses to the two people in front of him, explaining his concerns.

'Are you talking about the time...' Valerie looked towards Rydel and said, but she was cut off by an impatient Zel, who's heard the same story for the fiftieth time now.

'Yeah yeah yeah I was spotted and we fought. Yeah, that.' Zel continued, 'I need you two to create a diversion, but not just any diversion. I will give you the signal about when to attack, and I want you to draw as much attention as you can. When they are in the middle of the procedure, they will be the most occupied, and we will strike then.'

'Just make sure you give the signal at the right time then.' Rydel said, slapping Zel on the shoulder, 'we will be ready, plus we won't be the only one sieging.'

'What?'

'Yep, he is right.' A hologram of Cellica popped up, 'after what I tried to pull on B1 to save your ass, the Bureu has been putting some resources into investigating Absolute Being, and they would certainly not pass up on an opportunity to crack down on an organization at this time, when they are pinned down.'

'They are really putting themselves in a dangerous postion here,' Zel said, 'But I am not complaining.'

Meanwhile, fifty kilometers away, Lady Lily is echoing the same sentiment as Zel.

'We are putting ourselves at an extremely dangerous position here, master!' She said passionately to Zero who's on the workshop focusing on fine tuning the system both him and her has built, 'I understand the resource constraints, but you know that Sadie Allen was defeated, and Zel, albeit not able to make a move on Elmyra just yet, could step in to disturb the procedure at any moment!'

'That's the idea.' Zero said, 'The riskier the hand, the higher the reward, and if we do not dangle the bait out there, then we cannot hope to catch a big fish.'

'This...' Lady Lily scratched her head frustratedly, 'I never like Hong's powers. If we rely on him way too much, then the trajectory of our organization will lean more and more on luck from now on!'

'Are you suggesting that I am acting without considering the consequences?' Zero said, and Lady Lily immediately realized what she has said. She was about to apologize, but Zero put a hand up.

'Don't apologize,' Zero said with a calm and gentle tone, 'I am the one to apologize. I did not explain my plan to the fullest extent to both of you yet. I have merely given each of you enough information to act as I wished, but for the final stage to work, I need you all to be in it.'

It is then that Sir Deva who's been sitting silently in the room finally joined in on the conversation.

'Why exactly are we here, master?'

'Through Hong Fu's artifact, we are able to enable a series of events to occur. And he is willing to cooperate with us because of the prior immunity and opportunities I have granted him. However, all of that is to get Elmyra back into our hands.' Zero explained, wiping turning around and wiping all of the holograms floating in the room and looked at Lady Lily and Sir Deva both in the eyes, 'her artifact is the most power one yet. And her power is not only able to affect objects that moved in space and time, like you saw manifested through the way of her combat.'

'She is able to affect fate itself. Or really, causality.'

'Hong Fu can alter the probabilities of events, but Elmyra can do so much more.' Zero explained, 'For all of this time, I have prepared us for a war in the greater universe, but before we get there, a war will rage within the galaxies. My artifact allowed me to read into the fabric of reality, and peep into the trajectory of fate just barely, or really I can see some future events, though without any other knowledge, I can see turning points, per say. I have obtained the knowledge of an activation of an extremely dangerous artifact, one that for some reason, the information is not stable enough for my artifacts to read.'

'This artifact and its user will bring about a great disaster to the galaxy, and I intend to use Elmyra's powers to change that. This artifact's user will gather groups of artifact users that will rival our strength, and this conflict will weaken all of our forces so that the battle will be a lot more difficult when the great war with the greater universe begins.' Zero said, 'and for that reason, I am emphasizing Elmyra's powers with all of this equipment to cover as much of space as possible, amplifying her powers and activating as many artifact users as possible to prepare for this upcoming war!'

'So you want to...manually speed up the process of artifact activation all around the galaxy?' Lady Lily asked.

'Yes,' Zero said, 'using my knowledge, and Elmyra's power.'

'...I did not realize the threat of that artifact user is that high.' Lady Lily said, letting out a heavy breath.

'Neither did I, but if we do not take drastic measures, something horrible will happen.' Zero said.

'If I may,' Sir Deva suddenly spoke up, 'but master, have you tried to interfere with the future before? Did it work?'

'...' Zero didn't say anything, and the two in the room understood.

'I apologize.' Zero said after some thought, 'but I have not tried to interfere with the future before, because I never saw the point to. When Rydel infiltrated the Academy, the future was such that we will all unite when the time of the great war comes, but the future changed...when Elmyra's artifacts were activated, and even before, when that mysterious artifact user appeared.'

'So this will be our first attempt.' Lady Lily understood the risk, but even so the importance of this mission, 'I understand, master. I will make sure this will be sucessful at all costs.'

'Thank you, Lily.' Zero said, 'what about you, Sir Deva?'

'You don't have to ask me, master.' He said, and Zero gave him a big smile.

'So with that said, let's talk about the details of our plan!' Zero said, clapping his hands together, 'I understand you have prepared a special something, Lily...'

The time passed uneasily, as the two sides forces both prepared for the perfect time to strike, each with a plan of their own.

And it is at this time that the shuttle that picked up Vindy and Sadie Allen all in one trip took off from the entertainment district.

'A priest and a musician walks into a shuttle...'

Vindy honestly wasn't expecting there to be anyone else when the shuttle picked them up, but Sadie Allen was the only one sitting in the shuttle as the door opened. They shared an awkward look with one another before Vindy took a seat in the far side of the shuttle away from Sadie Allen.

Is he another artifact user? Vindy thought to herself, just how many are there out there? And how many are in Absolute Being alone?

'Who are you?' Finally, the man has spoken up as the shuttle raddled off in the awkward silence.

'Vindy.' Vindy replied, and it is now that she noticed that this man has wounds all over his body, as reflected by the tears and burns on his clothes. However, he appeared fine physically.

'Are you new? To this?' Sadie asked.

'Yes...? Who are you?'

Sadie Allen lets out a bit of a breath as the dull soreness from the fight just now in his body is only exacerbated by the prolonged sitting. He will need to rest and refuel before returning to top shape, and from the sound of things when Lady Lily is recalling, a second mission is about to happen, and it seemed like it will be the exact kind of mission for him.

This is an interesting development though, since you just don't see an artifact user just walking around.

'I am Sadie Allen, and I am the user of the Shield.' He said.

'Are you with Absolute Being?'

'I belong to the Absolute Being.' Without a second of hesitation, Sadie Allen replied, and the bluntness caught both of them by surprise as another short silence ensured, 'I am of course here. But why are you here? Are you joining us?'

'I...want to see what you do.' Vindy repeated the same thing she said to Lady Lily, as Sadie Allen looked like to be deeply under control of Lady Lily, and it looked nothing like the control from intimidation. Perhaps depending on the amount of importance the organization places on each of the artifact users, there are different levels of control.

Hong Fu appeared to be the least controlled up until the point when he was captured, she is constantly intimidated and controlled with fear, and this Sadie Allen fellow looked like he is living with the worst of it.

'Want some advice?' Sadie asked suddenly, his voice flat and his breathing calm.

'Stay clear.' Those words struggled to come out, and Vindy turned to face him. His eyes are shining as if trying to warn her, trying to tell her to get away. However, his facial features conveyed something else. He is trapped, and there is nothing anyone can do to help him fight the mind control techniques of Absolute Being. He doesn't feel pain or suffering from what he does, as the reward mechanism in his brain is tied intrinsically to his contributions to the organization. All he can do is to use careful words and frame phrases and questions in a smart way to evade the programming.

This isn't true living, but Sadie doesn't feel like it makes a difference anyway. What he wants and what he feels like wanting is totally different, and he lives as a slave of his mind.

But why does it matter if he doesn't feel it.

The shuttle went past the first layer of orbital rings and headed for the distant second one. There was no further conversation between the two as Vindy thought about what she will do once the shuttle lands in the base. Her next steps simply depend on way too many variables for her to be able to sit there calmly and prepare herself. From the look of things, it appeared that something big is going to happen, and that required both Hong Fu and Elmyra at the earliest notice, and Vindy isn't exactly going to be important for the next little while.

Lady Lily made it very clear that if she wanted to capture Vindy at any time, she is totally able to do so. Even if she is out and away. Once you are in the radar of Infinity, there are few places in the galaxy that you can run to. She will be preoccupied by something, and it will be likely that the other group of artifact users will try to intercept and stop whatever Lady Lily is going to do, meaning she will be even more occupied.

So there are a few possible things that will happen to her. She will be knocked out and imprisoned, she will be imprisoned right away without being knocked, she will be recruited in the next fight or given an assignment, or she will be killed. It would be most likely that she will be assigned something to do to prove her worth, or she will be knocked out and imprisoned depending on what's going to happen.

If Lady Lily is going to knock her out, then she will blow her up. Vindy thought, she is confident enough to create enough of a shock wave to override her enhancements, and if she can catch her by surprise, that overbearing human will be no more. However, she will most likely be killed right after, so perhaps it is best for her to appeal to Lady Lily's good sides and try to meet up with Hong Fu, or at least figure out his location.

As the destination closes in, the region where the manufacturing complex that belonged to Infinity is clearly visible from the windows of the shuttle. The shuttle gently kisses down on the ground before the doors are opened and a few soldiers stood outside. Sadie Allen got up and exited the shuttle before Vindy, and they walked out into the complex.

The flow of traffic from the first orbital ring 'above' them looked like shooting stars from this angle, and a couple of the dots looked like asteroids, ncoming straight towards them.

Vindy looked up, ignoring whatever the soldiers is saying as those objects became bigger and bigger before its shapes became clear in her eyes.

Those are not asteroids, those are ships.

The alarm of the complex sounded as the system picked them up as hostile objects, and a defensive force shield is raised. However, a flurry of EMP missiles were fired before it rained a storm of electrons all throughout the compound, severely weakening the shield generators.

'Quick, run!' The soldiers turned to group up with the rest while Sadie Allen tapped Vindy on the arm, 'head towards the main building!'