9 The Short Run

Sebastian Ghargonov is the most powerful man alive and everything he could do is sit there and watch me.

'Awkward.' I yawned, but I had no intention of leaving.

He then leaned over his table, pressed a button near a microphone that was on it and calmly said:

"Kill him."

I dropped to the floor even before he finished his sentence. A bullet hit the floor just in front of me. A big bullet from a sniper. Makes your head look like jelly. I rolled on the side and jumped up to run through the doors.

'Here we go!' I laughed madly as I ran over the courtyard towards the gate. All that time bullets kept hitting the ground around me. Adrenaline surged through my veins for the first time in five years.

'I like these guys, they should be the best of the best. But they keep missing me. Hahaha.'

The only problem that could be called a problem is that APC on the gate. More are coming down the street when they do I'll have to fight a hundred people more. Not like it's less than a thousand now.

As I thought about my odds for a successful escape, a whole century has been deployed in front of the gates. The probability of getting shot down, 100%.

'Finally. A challenge.' I grinned. I haven't faced such grim odds in more than four years.

"Stop or we'll shoot!!!" the centurion roared.

"Let's dance, bitches!!" Like I will stop. The kill order has been given, no stopping now. While running I fished out a grenade from my pocket, pulled the pin out and threw it. It was a stun grenade, not a deadly one, so only a loud bang and a blinding light happened. The blast has disrupted their formation. It also shook them up well enough so that they are unable to fight for fifteen seconds or so. Two soldiers died because they have hit their heads on the parked APCs.

I ran straight through the gate, jumped over and into the city.

'If I had to guess, I'm a dead guy the next time I meet any Pangrasian soldiers. Been there, done that.'

I run into a building to hide for a few moments to see if they're gonna chase me or not. I waited for five minutes no one passed by the building, except some civilians.

And then a stun grenade flew in thru the window, shattering it and my hopes.

'It's a stun grenade!' I thought as I closed my eyes and covered my ears. At the same moment a loud bang rang out and a second after it people burst in through the doors carrying spears and shields.

The first five fell like leaves in autumn. Others ducked behind their shields just in time to avoid a few shots that I fired. Well as expected from the Imperial Guards.

They don't carry grenades.

They fire stun or kill lasers from the spear's tip (as secondary) so they simply do not have any need for stun grenades.

We have SF here.

Yay.

The dance just got more interesting.

I fished out two frags from my pockets, unpinned them and tossed them through the window. After four seconds a loud bang followed by screams could be heard.

Guards' shields do not go down to the ground, just enough space for a grenade to roll in. But, they are too close for comfort. and the blast radius will get me if I use them here.

'Well, back to training.' The shields are impenetrable, their light armor is also bulletproof. Only their heads are somewhat open. And did I mention shields?

These bitches are trained to fight CQB in cities and towns across the planet. And you can find them wherever the Emperor goes. Four legions of these high success rate bastards are under direct command of the Emperor, loyal to the death.

And they are all locked on me now.

"Die!" One in the front roared and tried to stab me with his spear. Good for me they must use short spears when inside a building or I would be able to jump back to avoid it. As I was trying to outmaneuver a phalanx in a closed-off space, I noticed a square on the floor. I rushed to it and used my sword to try and open it. The hatch opened and I jumped in without thinking, also closing the hatch behind me. While jumping in I took out three frags and tossed them under their shields. As I ran down the stairs I heard the screams and explosions from the outside.

'Guess one of those three was HE. My bad.' I shrugged.

The stairs are going quite deep underground.

Not good. Not good at all.

This close to the palace, that means that there must be a secret base or something like that down here. Last time I was near a secret base, it just happened to be the Core's forward base of operation.

'I hope I can end this dance soon. I'm getting bored of it.' I sighed. I don't like boredom. It's such a pain in the ass. It can even get you to a depressed state in extreme cases.

That's why I dance a lot. Especially when I'm hyped up like now.

~Kill, kill, kill~ An eerie voice echoed in my head.

I sighed. I got used to it.

It's the same as that scream from before. When I mentioned it to Arnold he got worried and took me to a hospital. The good thing is that the Core's medicine is pretty much completely oriented to the brain and the nervous system. So they just did a few tests to see what will happen.

What they found out were unnatural, random outbursts of electrical signals from my neurons that are responsible for memories.

At first, they thought it was because the experiments they did on me. But since they stimulated my brain cells I heard the scream again that night. They weren't lazy and connected me to a machine to see what was happening inside. That means that they have connected me to the Core itself.

The Core is a hyper-computer built by who-knows-who, who-knows-when. It was without electric energy for a who-knows-how-much time. Until a Landygian troop of colonizers landed and accidentally activated it.

The Core spoke to me. I don't know about what, but it said that my memories are much more complicated than it can process in less than five years.

That means there are at least fifty more people in my head.

Anyway, the Core said that it has changed the frequency of the alternation between all those minds in there.

So all I now hear are these whispers. Some are urging me to kill, some to die, some to calm down, some push me to rage and so on and so forth. But much better than passing out every now and then, right?

~Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill~

'Now somebody needs to die.' I thought.

Just as I thought that I bumped into a door. Firm steel. Unbreachable.

Well. not for me.

I crouched and took out some thermate.

I placed it on the doors where hinges should be. I stood back and put on sunglasses.

I pressed the button.

There was scorching heat lasting for a couple of seconds, and then it ended. The door fell inward with a loud ringing noise.

I transformed my pen into an assault rifle and got inside.

Darkness.

'Damn it's so dark here. Time to use the lenses.' I smirked. I haven't used these for a few months.

Special Forces, Imperial Guards and some of the specialized centuries of the standard armies also use these multipurpose lenses. They are also popular within every single army on Gronos, not just Pangrasian. Actually, they were designed by a Landygian scientist, Lucas Actron. After he developed the lenses, there was a battle in his lab during which he died. The SFs from many countries came there to steal his tech. Of course, they all got a part of the tech and got back home with decimated units.

The original technological development of this technology was put on hiatus permanently. It was probably because the only guy who could develop it more was blown to pieces.

The newest version of these lenses provides the user with infra-red vision, night-vision. The possibility to zoom in on a target made it easier for snipers to operate since they don't need extra equipment. It also makes for easier recognition of military insignia of different countries. Global positioning, aiming, and pretty much everything else that requires sight or a computer in order to be used or done is possible with them.

I put them on when I first got on Gronos from the Core planet. It's a good thing about them, they are extremely robust. They are activated by the mind and controlled by the same.

I activated my favorite option they have-the infra-red. It's more useful than night-vision because the latter cannot help you see behind some stuff. But infra-red can.

So I looked around. Everything's cold, which means no life here. I switched to night-vision.

'Hmmm. Just as I thought, nothing's alive here.' I sighed.

Everywhere around me, dead were lying.

Yeah, dead. Bodies, partially rotten.

'They didn't die too long ago. Maybe a month, considering the room they are in.' I've seen things like this before so I'm used to sights like this and this kind of stench also isn't unknown to me.

Twenty bodies are in here. The room is too small for a functional bunker.

This could be an interrogation room. It's always better to keep such things out of the palace, and they did. They weren't killed by a weapon, but rather by poison or gas.

Suddenly I heard footsteps behind me and turned around.

A silhouette of a huge man was standing in the door-frame. I looked at its face to try and determine what have I gotten myself into when he roared:

"GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN, SHORTY!"

"A-Aurelius?!" I stuttered. No way he's here.

"Yup, it is me. Come here, why are you in this room? Wasn't it sealed off?" He spoke like we have seen each other just yesterday, and not for several months (for him, he isn't aware of my time traveling).

"What do you mean sealed off?" I asked him. He led me up the stairs and into the building where I pretty much massacred the Imperial Guards not too long ago.

"That story shouldn't be told in public and is too long anyway." He just shrugged his giant shoulders and continued walking towards the exit.

"And how did it happen that you find me here?" I couldn't help but ask.

"I'm the new legate inferior for this palace. Those Imperial Guards you blew up yesterday were my people. So, in order to save them and keep that secret a secret, I came to take you in." He answered monotonically. He sounded very bored by this task he got.

'I could bet that they are thinking that I am some sort of a lunatic. Well, I did laugh like one while I was running away. If they knew about those whispers. Tsk. They would put me in a box and mark it highly fragile. Maybe I should do some tattoos?' I let my mind roam as I followed behind Aurelius.

He led me to a trap.

Nice.

~Chop, chop, chop~