Ghosts in the Code

I made a quick dash outside, Juno guiding me to the proper location. I hadn't been to this part of the pyramid yet. It was a large loading area, with black concrete pillars placed at regular intervals, sleek white trucks placed between them, with crates lining the inside, with a few scattered around the outside. The dimming light of the sun, painting the sky orange, set a thematic tone for this, should I be on a date, which I wasn't.

Inside the docking area, a small firefight was taking place, though I couldn't identify who was on what side. The attackers were wearing the same white and blue uniform, with the same opaque mask as those guarding this facility.

This gave me an excuse to kill some of those loyal to the regime, and have a plausible excuse, being ignorance. That was until Juno spoke up. "I'm getting reports in now. I'll outline hostiles in red for you, just hang back a second." I took cover behind a pillar a couple of feet left of me, on the walkway to the docks in which the trucks were parked.

There were seven trucks in total, with three rows of twelve pillars separating them. Most of the combat was taking place outside and in between the trucks themselves. I peeked out from behind my pillar, number six on the first row, to see the hostiles outlined in red to my right, around pillar nine to twelve, friendlies were much closer but unaware of my presence on the field. They were in line with pillar four just a few feet away from me.

"Hostiles painted, get to work," Juno confirming what I had just seen was a small bit redundant, but I thanked her and moved from pillar to pillar, avoiding the enemies fire. I managed to get in line with them, as they were placed behind the trucks, not the pillars. By this time friendlies had seen me, and as such, I waved them off.

Then I had a thought... Juno could also be a traitor. Either way, I stand to gain should I kill these men, be it in keeping my intentions hidden or in thinning the ever-growing heard of those who serve the bleeding sun.

I peeked out from behind the pillar and aimed with the pistol in my wrist. There were seven which wouldn't be too hard to take out, given a small bit of luck. Two of them were right in front of me, three behind the truck to my right, the last two behind that.

I shot at the two directly in front of me, moving to the next pillar while doing so. The two fell with small wounds in their head and blood trickling out of the cracked visors of their armour. Behind the next pillar was where things got a little complex.

I had been spotted, and they weren't exposing their flank anymore, as such I was under fire from them, the other two had moved to flank me, forcing me to move. I took cover on the other side of the truck, peeking out I identified the three rebels looking at me, the red outline flickering slightly.

I moved to the other side of the truck and rounded the corner, grabbing the first rebel by his arm and twisting it behind him, with another hand on his weapon, which I used to kill a second, who was behind the third truck.

I then threw the captured rebel into another on my right, forcing them both to fall over, leaving me able to shoot the only one standing up, and eliminating the two before they got up, which left the last one easy to kill with a simple headshot as he rounded the corner.

That left everyone outside, who I was sure the new forces could handle, so I stepped back from the loading bay and into the dimly lit corridor once again. As I ran down there, the usual HUD elements would flicker every so often, I assumed due to the ongoing attack on a pretty important building.

"Where are you going? There's nothing down here" Juno spoke up. She was pretty surprised that I had just abandoned the battle like that, though I had my reasons.

"The rebel forces didn't look like they could take this facility, as such this is a grab and run operation. Question is, what are they grabbing?" I came to an intersection in the corridors, this place was a literal labyrinth.

"The main database is to your left, I'll light up the way for you." I took off down the corridor, and a second later there were arrows painting my way to the database, again flickering every few seconds, I paid it no mind.

I turned another corner down the corridor, almost running into the wall as I did so. There was a bright light at the end of the hallway. I couldn't see into the room, the light was simply too bright, so I had to make a mad dash into it.

My hud flickered once again, and as I got into the room I saw a man standing at the console just ahead of me, I began running towards him until I was just a meter behind me when a sharp pain in my head caused me to fall to my knees and scream. My vision blurred and flickered, Juno's voice came in short bursts, nothing understandable.

I placed both hands on my ears as I tried to rationalise just what was going on. The man at the console, noticing me seconds earlier, took off down the corridor. It didn't take long, but soon enough I passed out due to the pain, not knowing a single thing going on.

I was once again placed in the castle full of ice, the being again placed near me, this time he stood by the gate. "Floods and fire... all that I couldn't prevent. You will be my revenge and my redemption. Kill the Elder... take his place, and lead humanity back to its former glory... and let me rest."

I took a few steps this time, I looked around, to see the castle rise up over three hundred meters into the sky. "You want me to kill the Elder? You know he is immortal right? From the time before Requiem"

"That's why you are trying to kill him then? The Elder is only immortal as far as I am an influence on humanity. Present, but nothing of importance." He seemed... to be solemn about that fact. He turned away from me and spoke again. "Kill the Elder, and claim your place on the domain of humanity."

"You want me to lead humanity? Why not you? From what I've seen, you're the old ruler of humanity." It was a simple question, and it didn't seem to compute with me.

"Because I failed! I failed humanity, I let them burn, drown and bleed. And I put that tyrant into power, and became powerless to stop him myself! Now all I can do is guide the lost souls to the underworld."

He said that with such anger to start, but became mournful as he went on as if he regretted every life he let die or every life he left to suffer under the bleeding sun... he felt so much pain, and I so much anger