Chapter 6 ARCHONS

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The Catastrophe had passed.

Chernobog laid in waste. The buildings had collapsed as streets and roads were cracked, broken into pieces while the once towering skyscrapers were annihilated and brought down with the many prideful statues that crashed and shattered into innumerable pieces when they met the cold and indifferent concrete ground, now the once prosperous city with all its glory was reduced, degraded to just concrete, rock and rubble.

The rest of just Ursus just stood still, watching one of their cities get dismantled in such a dishonorable way. Even if their armies were garrisoned near Chernobog, they remained in inaction. They simply watched.

…

A figure could be seen, walking in the ruins of the former city. Her short white hair with red lines and ahoges were waving in the calming after-breeze. She wore a small smile while walking on the torn asphalt streets. After a while, her gaze focused upon noticing a peculiar looking object buried in the rubble. She walked to the object and kicked away the rubble laying on top of it, revealing the strange artifact. It was a gun, but that wasn't the strange part, it was a gun of a model she had never seen before and she had seen her fair share of guns. As someone who used to raid Laterano convoys and steal their guns as trophies, she knew this was something else, something different.

She took the unique weapon in her hands, from the bloodied stock and damaged barrel, she was inspecting every single bit of it. It was a miracle that this gun had survived the catastrophe, even if it had minor damages to it. She then released the magazine, inspecting the bullets inside. “Interesting, this is?” She hummed to herself as she investigated the bullet, scrutinizing it at eye level. Even the bullet had no markings in it, no signs or any indication of an origin, as if the entire gun was made to be untraceable. ““But why?”” She thought to herself, everyone knows that the Sankta are the only manufacturers of guns, even Blacksteel's weapons were made with the help of a Sankta.

““Why make an untraceable one?”” As she was pondering in her mind why this gun was made this way, she placed the magazine back and after a while of figuring out how it works, aimed the gun at some nearby wall of concrete. She adjusted herself into a shooting stance and focused her arts, she grinned as she pulled the trigger.

A flash of light was seen for a split second as the casing dropped and the bullet was expelled with a mighty force she had never felt before while the staggering recoil pushed her one step back with the barrel pointed upwards, smoking.

“What the-!?” She said to herself in disbelief. She quickly took the magazine off and inspected the gun again. That was the most powerful gun she fired, she then glanced at the concrete wall, now punctured with a circular hole straight to the center. She was good at arts manipulation, but she wasn't that experienced in manipulating the arts in guns for such an accurate sho-

“Wait, what?!”

The girl interrupted herself, realizing that she had not used a single bit of her Arts energy. Curious, she glanced at the wall again. Now, her eyes were burning in intrigue. The girl ran over to the wall, looking for the bullet and picking it up. There was no trace of Originium. “Huh? How the? how does this-” She cut herself off as she took and dropped one of the bullets in the magazine and placed it in the ground. She then grabbed a rock nearby and with all her strength, struck the bullet. The casing cracked a small bit and revealed some sort of black powder, but no trace of the familiar energy and aura of originium.

She giggled to herself, like a child finding a new toy. “This! Was this weapon the ‘3rd party’ used in dismantling Mephisto’s army?!” As she was trying to compute in her mind how this all works, something colorful next to where she found the weapon, and was covered in ash caught her eye. She swept off some layers of dust and grabbed a card shaped object near a torn piece of cloth.

She observed the suspicious blue card, there were numerous lines of different thicknesses aligned in a peculiar manner, on top of the lines were letters that spelled out “LCSNAFU”, and lastly, a mysterious symbol that depicts a red star or compass? over a shield with a avian animal on top with the words “Central Intelligence Agency” and “United States of America” written into the symbol.

“Central Intelligence Agency? United States of America?” She hasn't heard of both of these names before. “Really? Central Intelligence Agency? Hah, what an arrogant sounding name.” She glanced back to the gun in her hands. She grimaced, she knew there was something up. From the mysterious third party that many in the reunion think lead to Commander CrownSlayer being labeled MIA and the near death experiences of both Faust and Mephisto, the girl knew something the Reunion was not aware of was at play. A mysterious third party, or even fourth party had interfered. But who could it be?

““From what the scouts said, there weren't any gun users in R.I's team when they arrived, Ursus elites? No, they left Chernobog to burn, not to mention their hatred for the infected like R.I, maybe mercenaries? Sankta mercenaries?” As she was theorizing on who this mysterious interloper could be, someone from behind called for her. “C-Commander W!?”

W looked behind her, staring at the young recruit with a piercing gaze. “I-I just wanted to let you know that Talulah is holding a meeting for all lieutenants! T-They’re waiting for you!” She waved him off. “I'll be there in just a bit.” She said, choosing instead to investigate the gun a bit further. The young Reunion member could only agree to her demand, but his curiosity got the better of him when he saw what W was holding.

“Umm, C-Commander W? What is that?” W suddenly stopped and stared at him again, this time with bloody murder in her eyes. “Hey, what's your name?” “I-Its P-Pavel! Pavel Smerdyakov! I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean to offend!” “Pavel, at this moment, you saw nothing, You understand?” W said, with a maddening grin. “Y-Yeah!” “Great. So keep going on like normal if you don't want to see the red of your insides, yes?” “Y-You got it Commander!” He said, his boots shaking in fear. “Go on, I'll catch up with you later.”

Pavel replied with a yes and a swift bow, before running away like a scared cub. W sighed. She planned on keeping what she found secret for now, from the rest of Reunion and especially from Talulah. W never trusted the great leader of the Reunion movement, there was always just something a little off with her. Besides, the reunion needed time to recover and Talulah was not at her best mind, so much of the Reunion’s plans were indefinitely delayed as a result of losing 2 active commanders, one was declared MIA and the other would need weeks to even months to recover. Chernobog was a victory that came with unexpectedly massive losses.

All of these events culminating in Talulah growing impatient and rash, if W were to report what she'd found, Talulah would undoubtedly spend crucial Reunion resources on investigating the entire Terran landscape for the perpetrator, resources that they need for recovery. But of course, that wasn't the main reason why.

W was now all alone. She gazed at the gray cloudy skies of Chernobog, the cool breeze still making her hair flutter in the wind, but now her face was expressionless, her iconic smile dropping to a blank expression. “Central Intelligence Agency? Reported appearance of a single man that decimated the Reunion squads, CrownSlayer declared MIA, and of course these little things I've found." She narrowed her eyes in deep thought. “Something is going on, something behind the scenes."

She was not smiling, not now. Though she admits that she still didn't have that much evidence, her gut was telling her that something had changed, something big. Pure blooded mercenaries, just like her, could only survive this far with luck and a little bit of guesswork. And her gut was practically screaming at her that the world just got way more unpredictable, dangerous and in a way, more mysterious.

Whatever happens, she only had herself to rely on, the past proved this fact. After all, the fall of Babel proved that the mantra "Trust no one but yourself." is true. W sighs, taking a look at her pocket watch. Deciding that it was time to go, she quickly hid the stuff she found using a small bag and started walking in the direction of the current Reunion camp in Chernobog, her usual grin creeping their way back to her lips.

…

Area 555, Somewhere in Terra.

“Everyone! At ease!” The meeting room within Genesis shut silent. The only heads remaining of the agency sat together in a round table. There weren't that many of them, they glanced at the Director and gave their greetings. “Alright, before we begin, we'll have a short attendance check.” Oswald said, as he arrived as Grant's assistant. “Ahem!” He set his sights on the people at the table.

“Deputy Director, Laurence Lauffey, Deputy Director for Science and Technology, Fredrick Haber, Deputy Director for Administration, Alex Giuseppe, Chief of Regional and Transnational Issues Center, Davis Scavves, Chief Financial Officer, Jean Agnetha-”

Name after name, Oswald finished the list of the 20 or so people with the highest ranking senior leadership roles currently invited to the emergency meeting.

“Okay, everyone is here, shall we begin, Sir?” The Director nods his head. “We shall.” He exchanged glances with Fredrick Haber. Fredrick took the clue and stood up. “Cough-cough-cough” He cleared his throat before adjusting his glasses, holding a stack of paper on his other. “As of right now, we are unsuccessful in trying to power up the other prototype portals with the remaining Originium we have, not to mention that all of the prototype portals are still incomplete, imperfect and impractical, unlike the one that sent us here, it would take years and countless more materials for our engineers to even rush a activation and making of such a technological marvel like the original portal." The room's atmosphere instantly turned gloomy.

“StarGate-1, the one that sent us here, wasn't even complete! Not to mention we still have not figured out the fatal flaw which made the Originium's output break the meters!” He took a deep breath. “Currently, we are lacking material, we are lacking manpower and most of all we are lacking information. I've already tasked most of our scientists and engineers on the base to stop development on other technology to focus on the Portal, that is to say, we're gonna be stuck in this-” He mumbled something incomprehensible under his breath, before continuing to speak again. “World? Continent? For probably a long while- wait, have we even named this planet yet?”

The people in the room exchanged glances with one another. “I-I think we're getting off topic here.” Oswald interrupted the Director of the DS&T’s ramblings. “O-Oh, my apologies, uhh-” “I understand our situation here, Haber, give me a list of everything you need from men to materials by tonight. Is that everything?” Grant questioned. “You have my gratitude, Sir Director, though I don't know where we'd even get the materials we need, I suppose it's worth a try.”

He then took another clipboard of documents from his nearby assistant. “But, that's not all we have to report, actually we may, sort of have an theory on what originium is, or more accurately what it isn't.” Everyone’s interest was immediately captured.

“So, Uhh-When Originium was first extracted from the crash zone, then was tested and investigated by the scientists in 555, we were all floored by its intense energy yield, mysterious particles and atoms that we've never seen before. Upon further research, Originium had the capability to break our understanding on the general laws of the universe! I mean, how ridiculous is that? This thing is basically a massive middle finger for all the excellent scientists and mathematicians that had been working on the truth of our universe for centuries! If I were in their shoes, I'd be extremely and completely-”

“Ahem! Sir Haber, you're getting off topic agan. Get to the main point.” Oswald corrected. “My apologies, again I-” He sighed. “Fine, I'll keep it quick and simple, for any layperson to understand, I'll let the papers and documents to explain the intricacies and details themselves.” Fredrick said, putting down the stack of research papers.

“Simply put, this thing, Originium, or whatever it is, it's not natural.” Fredrick continued, not caring about the raised eyebrows and bewildered expressions in the room. “There's no way any form of natural force or evolution would have made something like this, it's just too- how can I even put it in words? Synthetic? Manufactured?”

“Mister Fredrick Haber, are you saying that Originium is artificial?” One of the heads said. “Yes, or at least that's what all the evidence we have gathered are pointing to, now, I'm sure you all know the implications which this brings. I want to add that it's not fully confirmed, errr-well not yet anyway.” “And what are these implications, Mister Haber?” “Well, if it's man made-oh! or uhh- I meant to say artificial, well-” “Wait just a second, are you suggesting aliens?” Oswald commented.

“Aliens?” “Did I hear that right?” “Wait, what?”

“Ahem!” Grant cleared his throat, shutting everyone up in the room. “Mister Fredrick Haber, are you saying that Originium is the work of other intelligent lifeforms, humans excluded?” “That seems to be the way the data is pointing to Sir, and if we are correct in our assessment that it is artificially made, well- I know I'm supposed to be a scientist not a conspiracy theorist but, if I may- can I make an outlandish assumption?” “You may.” “I think-no, I feel like, that-this, Originium thing, all of it was, uhh- how do I say this, intentional?”

“Explain.” Laurence said as he leaned forward in his chair. “I'm just saying that God usually doesn't randomly send us physics defying material from outer space that creates portals and then coincidentally transport us here. It's all too convenient, It's fantasy.” Fredrick visibly sighed as he spoke. “But of course, that's just my guess. Even less credible than the theory.” He said, sitting back down.

“You're suggesting that aliens sent this ‘Originium’ material to us?” “You know how ridiculous all this sounds right?” “Your people are not even sure if it's artificial yet!” Multiple people blasted the old scientist with questions.

“Ridiculous?” Haber said, irritated. “We just got transported to a new world and already have seen its alien inhabitants from the drone footage! Didn't you see that massive moving block of steel? We're already experiencing the ridiculous!”

“I suggest we all conduct ourselves properly here!” Laurence's voice put everyone to a stop as the Director sighed. “Thank you for the information , Mister Haber, however we shall discuss the matters with the Originium at a different time.” Grant looked into Oswald's direction. “Oswald? When will they start?” “Right!” Oswald hurriedly checked his watch. “We've got about 45 minutes left before ‘Operation Demiurge’.” The Director turned back to face the table. “We’ll have a much more comprehensive meeting later on gentlemen, but for now, let's keep it short, shall we?” He glanced to the seat of the Deputy Director of Administration. The well kept man with a dark complexion noticed Grant's gaze.

“I understand.” Alex Giuseppe stood up, he straightened his tie before speaking. “Shall l shorten my report as to not put risk on the Directors schedule?” “You may.” Answered Grant.

“Then I will begin. First, security is at maximum, every single men are still cooperative, the people of 555 are top of the line after all, chances of mutiny are close to zero. Second, we have enough stock of MRE in our storage bunkers to feed the base for at least an entire year. I have given permission for some knowledgeable people to start making farms and other related facilities for food growth. Additionally, analysts who were in charge of checking the drone footage may have spotted a body of river nearby, I suggest we should look into this further. As for structural integrity, it seems the entire base from our power plants at the far south, to even our sewer systems are also transported. However a multidude of problems have still surfaced leading to only 10% effectivity, as of right now the entire base is running on emergency generators, this is not recommended."

Alex, with all his professional zeal, faces the Director. "May I advise, relocate our engineers immediately to these locations for inspection and management. Lastly, I would like to conclude that even though our situation might look stable, this might change at any moment’s notice, we are unfamiliar with these lands and that is our worst weakness. That is the end of my report. Feel free to ask any concerns and extra details.”

The DDA’s concise and straight to the point summary made everyone in the room relax for a small bit. “Thank you Alex, precise as always, permissions granted to any actions you think are suitable. Sit down” “You have my gratitude, Sir Director.” Alex sat back down, but before the next man stood up for his report, Grant raised his hand and gestured for him to stop.

“Now, before we begin with the other reports, I want to address the fact that, our chain of command and overall structure is almost close to being completely ineffective in its current state. Even though we have a good deal of employees in Area 555, added the fact that a high number of high ranking heads and directors are here, the truth remains that 85% of the chain of the command are not present at the moment, you all understand me?”

Everyone agreed with the Director, Oswald reviewed the records again before adding unto Grant's statement. “I agree Sir, since 555 is basically a massive factory, most of the people here are from the Science and technology department, we're lucky that the invitation for the testing of the portal and the call back of our agents happened before the transportation, or else the situation here would've been a lot worse.”

“I would add that most of the Special Activities Division, Counter Intelligence Division, National HUMINT and the other related offices aren't with us right now, especially the DDO, DDI and ExDir.” Laurence commented. Everyone in the room agreed that this was a problem, a big one that has to be resolved immediately. “Then Sir Director, what do we suggest we do?” The Chief Information Officer asked.

“The state of our chain of command right now is absolutely unstable, with how many holes there are in the ranks.” Grant paused for a small bit, before continuing. “That is why I will be completely remaking the system we are using right now.” The entire room’s atmosphere changed into shock.

“S-Sir, will I maintain my position?” “Into what exactly?” “Sir Director, are you sure about this?”

Grant sighed upon seeing the reaction of some of the people. “I would be simplyfing the command structure to only three major departments. Science and technology Department, Security, Administration and Human Resources Department and lastly Intelligence and Operations Department.” He glanced to Haber and Giuseppe. “You know what roles you two are taking, understand?” “Y-Yeah, I get it, Director, Sir.” “I understand Sir, I would not fail your expectations.” Both the scientist and the man in the best suit responded. Grant nodded in satisfaction.

“Next, since the ExDir isn't here, that role would be taken over by our Deputy Director, Laurence Lauffey.” “Understood Sir.” “Of course, all of the other divisions, subdivisions and offices would be under these new big three, I'll be sending the new chain of command list later on. All of you with me?” The room agreed quietly. Wheter it be the Directior’s commanding nature or the power he has, no one dared to question him anymore.

“W-Wait a minute, I understand Mister Haber and Mister Giuseppe taking over the other two, but what about the Intelligence and Operations Department?” Oswald asked, thinking he missed something. “Oh, you can't guess?” Grant said, staring at Oswald. “With all due respect, I don't know what you mean, Sir.” “The new Deputy Director of the new Intelligence and Operations Department, would be the current Executive Secretariat.” Oswald scratched his head. “The current Executive Secre-” He broke his sentence in realization. “W-Wait, are you talking about me?” “Who else would I be talking to?” Oswald was left stunned for the time being.

…

Chernobog

“Shit!” A voice roared out from under fallen rocks and rubble. “I can't- I can't die here!” She said as managed to kick out more of the fallen rock and concrete that burried her. Her red Lupine tail finally making it's appearance out of the rubble.

“Argh!”

With one last final push, the red haired Lupo finally managed to get out of her prison, shoving all the rocks away to finally be able to sit up straight.

“S-Shit, It hurts, it hurts so fucking bad-”

She removed her black hoody and took of her Reunion assigned yellow-orange armband and used it to bandage some of her shrapnel wounds that covered her right arm.

“Cazzo, please-”

She growled in pain as she tried to treat her multiple injuries that spread throughout her body. Unfortunately no one was near her, atleast right now.

“H-How did it go this wrong?”

CrownSlayer said to herself, for this was one of her worst days ever, period. Especially if the day started of almost flawlessly.

The early stages of the Chernobog operation went so smoothly for the Reunion, thanks for the supplies and weapons the Reunion received from an unknown source, they managed to decapitate the governing body in no time and sow chaos and disorder among the ranks of the Ursus Guards.

Then after that she just stood watch for a while, being bored by how easy it was, until she heard of Rhodes Island being in the area.

“D-Dammit, Is anybody there?! H-Hey!”

She cried out, right now she was in an underground bunker which had collapsed from the Catastrophe. She tried to get rid of some of the shrapnel stuck to her arm caused by that explosive, but it was to no avail.

“Argh! All of this, all because of one e-explosive?!”

CrownSlayer tried to stand up, trying her best to endure the pain, but she collapses in the process.

Clutching her wounds, she managed to atleast to sit back down again. But this time she decided to stay put for now and calm her breathing and herself.

“Who the- I didn't think those Rhodes Island Scum would strap a bomb to on one of our injured, or was it Ursus?”

She recollected what happened in her mind and how she, a great assasin and infiltrator was put into such a pitiful state.

““Me and my squad was hunting for what was reported to be a Rhodes Island operators, t-then-””

She closed her eyes, forcing her self to stay silent and pusing the grunts of pain back.

““My squad discovered a Injured Reunion swordsman, we went over to help him, until we noticed some sort of device strapped to his leg, but it was already too late.”

CrownSlayer’s breating calmed down, but the pain didn't, tears were now running across her face.

““Then, one of my soldiers who noticed it first blocked the explosions and used herself as a meatshield- shit shit shit.””

Trying to recall the events to deduce who would've done such a thing didn't help her at all.

““My arm was still hit, but I managed to somehow make my way to some underground bunker near the area, now I'm all f-fucking alone here.””

But still one question lingered in her mind, who could've done it?

““As far as I remember Rhodes Island never used explosives, especially ones with that much power, so is it the Ursus? But if they had such weapons, why didn't they use any to attack us earlier?””

Her mind was rushing to get an answer, and ended up somewhere unexpected.

““Wait, explosives, bombs, C-Commander W?””

She quickly shrugged her head, dismissing the thought immediately.

“N-No that's just, ridiculous.”

But not finding a conclusion just made her much more livid.

She grit her teeth in rage.

“Whoever it is, be it Rhodes Island or Ursus, I'll hunt you down! Then I promise I'll kill you! Whoever that fu-agh!”

Her speech was cut short as the sharp pain forced her to cry in pain,

“M-Merda, before that, I need to survive first, yes, survi-”

Her sentence was cut short again, but this time not out of pain. Her lupine ears stood straight. She heard something, footsteps, people speaking. Were they Reunion? She hoped they were, even if they were Mephisto's lackeys she'd take anything at this point, but the next thing she heard quickly crushed her hopes. A small bzzt sound was heard nearby before one of the men spoke.

“This is Archon 1-6 to Archon 2-3 we’re nearing 50 meters to the last detected location of the signal, break, what's your status on the drone? Over.”

___ (Arknights is not owned by me) This chapter came late yet was rushed, This is what unexpected circumstances does to a schedule, also does crownslayer swear siracusan style? Send suggestions