Chapter 28: The Veil!
'Thinking'
"Talking"
[System]
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- Mount Weather | Level 7 | The Ground -
- 3rd Person -
*SLAM!*
The door into the Mount Weather command center opened and slammed shut. In walked a man with a white button up shirt, with tan tactical cargo pants, and a tan ballistic vest. On the ballistic vest is a name badge labeled - Emerson -.
"It's about time, lieutenant." Cage said irritably.
"Sorry, sir." Emerson said as he moved to sit in front of one of the monitors.
"Brief me on the remaining 34, and my father."
"Yes, sir. The hunter killer has been deployed along with a squad of men with riot shields and beanbag shotguns. But it seems that some of your fathers' soldiers have arrived and are helping the kids."
"Figures. Have you found my father yet?"
"I have soldiers going from room to room. It's only a matter of time."
"So, you have nothing, lieutenant."
Emerson looks down in embarrassment before standing up straight and folding his hands behind his back, "Yes, sir."
"Lieutenant, those kids are the key to everything, and we can't get to them if my father keeps on intervening."
"People with similar moral reservations as your father have most likely helped hide him."
"Thats the problem. They don't realize that those kids are dangerous. They irradiated an entire level."
"I agree, sir. And we can tell them about how they killed ten of our men unjustly and hopefully force your father out of hiding."
"... Do it."
"Yes, sir."
"Now let's talk about the outside threat. Look at them." Cage says indicating towards the large flat screen monitor that shows the acid fog, its range, as well as one-thousand small blips that are being continuously scanned. "The entire army stopped just outside the Veil's range. Why?"
"They're learning, sir. I told you this commander was different." Emerson says walking up next to Cage.
"What's she gonna do? Wait us out? We've been safe down here for 97 years. She's gonna lose patience, and when she does... deploy the fog."
"Yes, sir."
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- Grounder Encampment | The Ground -
- Arthur Pendragon -
After I had completed the designs on the hydrazine RPG and had it made, I gathered forty-eight of the seventy-one members of the Guard, all thirty-three Rangers and began our march with the one-thousand-man grounder army.
Before we had marched, Lexa and I had gone over our forces and what they were made up out of. Lexa's army was made up of one-thousand and three soldiers. One-hundred and ninety-six of those men were light cavalry, another eighty-nine were armored heavy cavalry which loosely resembled medieval knights. The rest of the force contained five-hundred and eighteen swords and spearmen, along with two-hundred archers.
The total two-hundred and eighty-five cavalry was split into groups of three, each under their general's direct control. Group one: The Preservers of Fury, as they were called fell under control of general Tristan the general of the commander's rangers. Group two: The Order of Direction fell under general Icarus, a six-foot tall tan man, with dark black hair, and had deep golden eyes that would make the normal man look away. General Icarus lead most of the heavy cavalry whereas the other two generals lead only a small portion. They had nineteen heavy cavalries, Icarus had fifty-one. Lastly, group three: The Lancers of Fire fell under the control of Agni, an accomplished young general who was able to use fire magic. Agni is a tall, muscular man with red hair and amber eyes. His red hair is kept short and ruffled, messy and his bangs fall across his forehead. His unit gained its name because before every major battle he would use his fire magic to encase his soldier's lances with fire.
The normal swordsman and spearman were also split into groups of three under the same generals, but with the archers it was different. All two-hundred archers were under the command of a single general named Apollo. Apollo has short light brown curly hair and dull golden eyes.
After greeting and getting to know the four generals it was clear that both Apollo and Tristan disliked if not hated me, while both Agni and Icarus were friendly and accepting.
We marched for a few hours before establishing camp just outside of the acid fog's range.
After being encamped for a few days, the grounders were roaming around restlessly in between tents conversing about the battle to come, family back home, and their allies. Others were sparring with one another in preparation and cleaning their armor or feeding their mount. On a distant hill sat one tent covered in mesh and banners showing that the tent belonged to their commander. Surrounding the tent were eighteen grounder guards carrying golden tipped spears and wearing roman-like armor with a tattered red cape and golden skull faceplate.
Inside the tent sat a bed covered in furs, a few tables littered with weapons and in the middle of the tent sat one large chestnut oak table that had once again a diorama of Mount Weather and the surrounding woods including their army sat upon it.
"What would Clarke or Octavia think of you being in my tent alone?" Lexa asked as she lay on her bed, with a slight grin on her face.
"Hmm... Bellamy will soon have the acid fog disabled, then we can conquer this god forsaken mountain." I ignore her question and briefly glance at her. Lexa is laying in her fur covered bed in a tank top and skinny jeans.
"You trust him that much?" Lexa asked.
"Of course, I wouldn't have made him a general if I didn't." I reply.
"Good. You're shaping up to be a good leader, Arthur. Much better than how I was when I first became the commander." she replied before standing up wrapping a white wolf fur coat around her shoulders and walking up and standing next to me.
"How did you lead when you first became the commander?" I asked her.
"I would constantly tire myself out by asking if myself If what I was doing was right. If my decisions would help or harm my people. And when I couldn't move forward it only got worse because it gave me too much time to think. Because of that I lost someone special to me. She was captured by the Ice nation whose queen believed she knew my secrets. Because she was mine... they tortured her. Killed her. Cut off her head and gloated about doing so." she said staring up directly into my eyes.
"What was her name?" I asked quietly.
"Her name was Costia. Because of that I discovered that feelings make you weak." She replied before moving away from me and pouring two glasses of water from a small pitcher on a nearby table. "Here." she said handing me one.
"That's what it means to be a leader, doesn't it? To Ignore your feelings and continue no matter what?"
"That's exactly what it means. I'm glad that you-..."
"You're wrong. Feelings do not make you weak, they make you stronger, both mentally and physically. Knowing that Clarke and Octavia are waiting for me after a long day is joy, happiness, content, allowing me peace of mind. Knowing that my friends are being used as blood bags while I'm forced to sit out here and wait on Bellamy causes my blood to boil and my anger allows me to fight like a madman. You hiding behind that thin wall of emotionlessness is what makes you weak."
"I'm not weak." she said scowling.
After she said that the wind inside the tent began to pick up and swirl around her like a protective shield and her blue eyes gained a subtle blue glow to them.
"Is this you showing that you're not weak? Because it just proves my point further, I didn't mean that you were physically weak. Hell, I'm sure you could kill me in a heartbeat, but here-" I say pointing at her heart, "-Is a mess of regret, sadness, and anger all swelling together. You've been able to keep a lid on it for all this time, but one day that lid will burst open, and you won't know what to do."
"Then what do I do. How do I stop blaming myself for her capture and death! How do I stop blaming myself for not realizing that Azgeda was such a threat and still is! How do I-I-..." she said beginning to yell before taking a few deep breaths subsequently calming down. "How does my anger, my sadness, my rage not cloud my judgment?" she whispered desperately, looking away from me.
I grabbed her by the shoulders and gently lifted her head so that she was once again staring into my eyes. "The emotions you feel are all part of being human. Once we deny those feelings and block them out, we become something else, an emotionless husk. Life is more than just going through the day-to-day motions. It's about living, being able to bask in the sunlight and feel its warmth on your skin. About looking at the women next to you not as she wishes to be seen, as the commander, but see her as she is, a beautiful young woman who was thrust into a position of power and forced to deal with the aftermath. We deserve better than that don't we?" I asked, smiling down at her.
"Maybe we do." she said as she stood on her tip toes grabbed the back of my neck and moved her lips to mine.
"Commander, sorry to disturb you but the signal flare has been seen." The guard at the tent entrance said disrupting her and causing Lexa to step back scarred that she might have been seen. She breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed after looking and realizing that he had said that from outside the tent.
We both then thought about what he had said and rushed outside and stared into the afternoon sun filled sky. Where a giant red flare was seen flying through the air.
"The son of a bitch finally did it." I said to her.
"You were right to have faith in him." she said agreeing.
After staring at the flare for a few more seconds we both ran over to the nearby hillside that overlooked the encampment. Most of the grounders had been awakened by the excited yells and screams of the people that had witnessed the flare as it launched.
"HEDA!" The grounder army shouted as they saw the commander emerge from the hilltop.
"Teik em laud, tromon-de." Lexa shouted towards two men who were both carrying horns. (Sound the horns.)
The horns blew loud and had the distinct sound of a trumpet, it carried across the entire encampment alerting everyone that the time for war had finally come. Cheering erupted as the grounder army all cheered in joy at finally being able to have vengeance on the mountain.
"Kom wor!" She screamed. (To War.)
The horns continued to be blown as she walked back to her tent to equip her armor, and I received a quest alert.
[Quest Received!]
[Quest Info:]
[Bring down the Mountain!]
[Incomplete] Kill Cage Wallace --- [0/1]
Rewards: +10 Stat Points, x2 Random Loot Box, A weapon worthy of your war performance
'What the hell is the last reward supposed to mean?' I asked myself as I equipped my armor and prepared for battle.
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- Earlier in the day | Mount Weather | Level 2 | The Ground -
- 3rd Person -
Bellamy continuously swiped his keycard on a restricted access door to level two only to have the keypad beep and turn red.
"Shit." he hissed.
*STATIC*
"Bellamy, come in." Raven said on the radio.
"Yeah, I'm a little busy here, Raven." he responded.
"You missed check-in. Did you find the source of the acid fog yet?" she asked.
"I'm making my way there now. I had to leave Maya with her father first. It's taking longer than I thought it would." he said as he made his way down a flight of steel stairs.
"I don't know enough to crack it on this end. You gotta give me something."
"I'm working on it." he said as he walked up to another restricted access door and swiped his keycard.
*BEEP*
Red light again. "Something's wrong."
"What?" she asked.
"My keycard isn't working. I need to find another way in, or another keycard." he answers as he looks around for a possible solution.
"Well, that's not good."
"I'll call you back." he said, turning off his radio.
*BEEP*
He swiveled his head to his right as he heard the door open and watched as two Mount Weather soldiers with their pistols drawn stopped and aimed at him.
"Stay right there! Hands in the air." One of them shouts.
Bellamy steadies his gaze on them, and then bolts up a steel stairway with a yellow handrail.
"Get back here!" They shout as they begin to chase after him. "In pursuit of the target, it's not Lovejoy. Repeat, it's not Lovejoy." the same man as earlier says into his radio as him and his partner follow Bellamy up the stairs.
Bellamy sprinted down the catwalk as the alarms blared all around him, and the soldiers were closing in fast. Bellamy eventually encountered a fork in the pathways and sprinted left, which was walled off and enclosed.
Bellamy found another staircase and quickly descended it. Meanwhile the soldiers had just reached the fork. "Split up." the one in the lead said as he sprinted down the left hallway.
After Bellamy had reached the bottom of the stairs he was drenched in sweat and looked up alarmed as the sound of voices grew closer, right until it was at the top of the stairs.
"Checking in. Go back down to base level." The one at the top of the stairs said.
"You're surrounded!" The second one said from somewhere Bellamy couldn't tell.
Bellamy, not wanting to stick around and find out sprinted down an unsecured area that was clearly a manufacturing area, as he passed a few drills, hammers, and even a forklift. He sprinted until he found a good dark corner that he could hide in.
"Keep your eyes open." he heard on one of their radios. "Garza, do you see him?" he heard right around the corner.
Taking the soldier by surprise, he leapt out and knocked the gun out of the soldier's hand before punching him in the side of the head and kicking one of the soldier's knees causing it to bend the wrong way.
"AH-MHMHM!" Bellamy quickly shoved his hand over the soldier's mouth to prevent his scream from ringing out and alerting the other soldier. He hit the soldier with two more quick jabs to the side of his head knocking him out.
"Garza, what's your status? Garza?" Bellamy heard over the radio as he fiddled with Garza's pockets in search of his keycard. "Garza? Do you see him?" He heard on the radio but again he ignored it.
Bellamy finally found the keycard, stood up, looked around, grabbed the gun, and then swiftly made his way into an air vent.
After closing the vent, he made his way through until he got to the vent that Maya's father had told him leaded to where the acid fog was kept. He at first tried to pry the vent open but after that didn't work, he pulled out the acetylene torch and began to cut it open.
Hopping out of the vent he held the acetylene torch in his left hand and his pistol in his right. He looked up and came face to face with a thirty meter long, 6-meter-wide steel pipe that had multiple different valves and pipes attached to it.
'I don't think this is just a steel pipe.' Bellamy thought to himself as he started moving down next to the steel vat as carefully as he could.
He soon reached a small wall where a fire axe, a fire hose, and a few valves were. He smashed the glass with the butt of his gun and grabbed the fire axe. He then climbed up onto another catwalk where a set of thick burly steel doors were. Bellamy smashed the keypad with the fire axe, then set it in between the two doors to act as a blocker.
"Come in, Raven. I made it. I hope you have a plan." He said into his earpiece.
"I'm still working on it. Give me something to go on. What do you see?" Raven asked.
"A huge steel vat, it looks like a submarine. Some other tanks with chemical formulas. Warning labels. A bunch of pipes going into the wall. A monitor." He listened as he walked next to the vat.
"Oh! Go to the monitor." Raven said in surprise.
"Alright, I'm here. What next?" he asked as he observed the different scales and buttons on the monitor.
"Look for a pH scale."
"Right... uh... well, it has a scale, but the rest, uh... S3, V2, O5, H2, S2, O7. Tch... Can I just blow this thing?" he asked irritated.
"No, they'll know their defenses are down. They'll send a tech to fix it, or reroute it, or pull out some other weapon we don't even know about. Also, you'd probably melt your face off."
"Sigh..."
"Look, you know I like a good explosion but we gotta think our way through this one. We can do this. First, I need you to start naming different systems off."
"Okay, uh... Level indicator?" he asked unsure.
"No. Do you see an actuator anywhere?"
"...I have no idea what that is."
"Okay, what else?"
"Internal pressure sensor?"
"No."
"Set point and alarm?"
"Yeah, we're gonna avoid that one."
"Maintenace and cleaning?"
"... Bellamy go to that subdirectory. See if there's anything there that says "passivation."
"Okay, I'm on it... I got it." he said as he selected passivation and pressed enter.
A pH dial showed up on screen with the words, Aqueous sodium hydroxide bath above it. The pH scale was zero and, in the red.
"It says, Aqueous sodium hydroxide bath."
"Alright, that's a base, it will neutralize the acid. Select that."
There were three choices, proceed, manual override, or cancel. Bellamy selected proceed. The pump began to hum, and the screen began to load with the words, passivation in progress next to it.
"It's doing something."
"Okay, you should be able to hear the pump."
"I can hear them." he told her, looking towards the pump. He turned back to the monitor and watched as the pH needle began to rise. "Needle's moving. The pH is rising."
"That means it's working." she told him.
Soon the needle made its way to seven causing the loading process to stop and in blinking red letters it said, passivation successful.
"Passivation successful, Raven. We did it."
"HELL YES-..." he heard before the radio cut out.
He laughed to himself and moved back to the vent so that he could leave, when he spotted a dial out of the corner of his eyes that was on the underside of the pump. He crawled and began to wipe away the dust and dirt that covered it, that's when he noticed on the dial it showed that the pH was still at zero.
"Shit!" he muttered as he scrambled back towards the monitor, but the monitor still read that passivation was successful and the pH was at seven.
"Raven, we have a problem. I don't think the acid fog is down. Get word to Arthur. We have to stop the army. RAVEN!?" he yelled into the radio.
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- Mount Weather | Level 7 | The Ground -
"Confirmed, sir. The intruder's radio has been cut off." Emerson told Cage as they listened in on Bellamy's radio chatter.
"Raven, what's going on?" Bellamy said over the radio with concern lacing his voice.
"Reset the panel. The army's almost in range." Cage said to the man at a computer next to him.
The soldier followed his orders and reset the panel back to the pH level of zero, causing Bellamy to take a step back in shock.
"Good job finding the radio, lieutenant. Do a sweep, make sure there aren't any more. And bring me the intruder."
"Yes, sir." Emerson said with a nod before walking out of the command center.
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- Mount Weather | Level 2 | The Ground -
*BEEP!*
*BEEP!*
*BEEP!*
*BEEP!*
*BEEP!*
*BEEP!*
"Oh, no. No."
*BANG!*
*BANG!*
*BANG!*
The thick burly steel doors that he had blocked with the fire axe earlier were banging as Mount Weather soldiers attempted to force the doors open.
Bellamy quickly began to look around for any possible or viable solution, he grew alarmed and was about to just bolt when he spotted a large oxygen tank with the words, flammable located on the side of the tank in big red letters.
He ran over to the tank and took cover behind it.
*BANG!*
The door was forced open, revealing five men in Mount Weather security detail clothing all carrying pistols. Three of them hopped down from the catwalk and began to advance on Bellamy.
"Move, move, move, go! On my lead. He's armed, don't be a hero." said their squad leader as he led the two other men that were advancing towards Bellamy. "Show yourself. Hands first."
Suddenly Bellamy sprinted out from behind the tank and slid into the vent, he quickly without looking back began to crawl away as fast as possible.
*BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!*
Gunshots rang out as Bellamy rushed past the soldier's line of fire. "Cease fire! Don't hit the tanks." the squad leader said as the other two men jumped down from the catwalk and made their way over to them.
After they had all stacked up on the vent, two of them ducked their heads in so they could see if he was gone or not.
*BANG! BANG!*
Two shots rang out and both soldiers' heads exploded into a splatter of blood and brain matter that covered their fellow soldiers clothing and vest, causing them to step away from the vent and nearly empty their stomachs.
Bellamy, taking the opportunity, put a few more shots down the vent with his akimbo pistols before scurrying back farther into the vent.
"Go after him, I'll check the tanks." the squad leader told his remaining soldiers.
The squad leader checked high and low, but he couldn't find anything. That was until he walked to the back of one of the oxygen tanks and saw that an acetylene torch was placed up against it and burning through the protective steel.
"OH, SHIT!" he screamed out as he reached to pull it away.
*BOOM!*
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- Mount Weather | Level 7 | The Ground -
"We're go for Veil." Cage said smiling.
After a few minutes the entire command center was silent, and Cage was confused.
"Well?" he asked.
"We are negative on Veil deployment." Emerson told him as he analyzed the situation on one of the computers.
"What? What happened?" Cage asked confused.
"Soldiers are reporting an explosion in Chemicals Deployment. Multiple casualties. The Veil is down. I repeat the Veil is down." Emerson said into his radio.
"What else can we use?" Cage asked, still hopeful.
"The Reapers can't take a force this large." Emerson informed him.
"Don't tell me what we can do. Tell me what else we have!" Cage yelled as he slammed his fist down onto the center console.
"Nothing. All we have is the doors." Emerson answered, causing Cage and the rest of the command center staff and guard to realize the severity of their situation.
Cage watched as the one-thousand blips marched into and past the Veil's zone. "FUCK!" he screamed at the top of his lungs as he once again brought his fist down onto the center console in rage.
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{P.S: Longest chapter yet! I hope you enjoyed it! This is also mainly because I want to reach four-thousand words on this chapter. One word!}