Relias: Uprising (11 page)

 The door slammed open and eight Dark soldiers, all fully armed and dressed in full armor, stood in the hallway outside the room. The leading two stepped in and flanked Luke.

 “Get out of here, traitor.” The first one said. Luke didn’t so much as twitch his eyes towards the men.  It was as if they weren’t even there. His eyes were on Tess, begging her for her forgiveness.

 “Did you hear what I said?” The soldier said stepping closer to Luke. “I told you to move your rotten, Legion loving-“

 “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to…“ Luke said. Tess’s expression remained scared and sad. It was a very real sensation, the feelings that she was experiencing. And all Luke could do was watch helplessly as, once again, he messed up his chances with one of the few things he’d ever be able to care about again. She had grown and matured on the idea that Luke Semprys was a strong, brave, selfless man. She had gone through school, through her social circles, bragging to everybody she met that, though any uninformed moron might think he’s a traitor, she was the daughter of the legendary Luke Semprys. Luke had let her down; he had been unable to give her the unbreakable father she had idolized all her life. He knew it, and it made him sick. And once again there Luke stood, alone and abandoned at his own doing. The emptiness he felt stole his breath.

 It was the soldier who cut him off though, grabbing Luke’s arm and making an attempt to force him to the door.

 “Now I can see why everybody thinks you’re such an arrogant tool. Move your a-“

 “BACK OFF!” Luke yelled, shaking the soldier off so hard that he stumbled. The other soldiers became more alert and defensive. They aimed their weapons at Luke and didn’t move. With a defensive look on his face the soldier looked over the rest of his group and turned back to Luke with renewed aggression. He shoved his weapon into Luke’s side and growled.

 “Get out. Now.”

 Luke was ignoring them again. He was looking to Tess. “Tess… baby… please don’t go. I’m so sorry. I… I didn’t know what-“

 “Take him.” The soldier said. “Take him hard.”

 The Dark soldiers flooded into the room to surround Luke. Luke’s right arm began to glow with a bluish steam. He saw the expression on Tess’s face. He knew he had already lost her. His heart sank, and his face became dangerous once more. The soldier put his hand on Luke’s arm and pushed him towards the door. Tess didn’t even look at him as he passed.

The air became heavy. Seeing Tess reject him, knowing well that he might never see her again, the hate and anger that filled Luke’s chest boiled over and he snapped.

With a loud yell he sent a vicious punch into the chest of the soldier who had tried to force him out in the first place. He dented the chest plate like foil and the man flew back and crashed through the wall. The next soldier saw it happen and tried to back out of Luke’s reach. Luke grabbed him by the collar of his armor, lifted him over his head and slammed him into the floor. As the man went unconscious, Luke was tackled around his midsection and forced backwards. He tripped across one of the suitcases and fell to his back. The Dark soldier brought his gun around but Luke grabbed the barrel. The blue steam still rising off his arm Luke squeezed the gun, the metal gushing between his fingers like putty. The soldier ditched the gun and went to slug Luke across the face. Luke caught his fist halfway through the swing and clasped it. The man tried to wrestle his hand away as Luke got to a kneeling position. Looking the soldier in the eye, Luke constricted his grip. The man yelled in agony as his hand was slowly reduced to bloody, shapeless mush, making wet squishing sounds and crunches as Luke’s hand closed entirely. The grip loosened and the man slumped to the ground screaming. Luke got to his feet and saw another man running at him. Luke put his fists up.

 The soldier was clothes-lined. He did half a back flip before landing on his head, cracking his neck hard and going unconscious. Luke looked over and found Tess standing wide legged with an outstretched arm.

 She jumped to his side and raised her fists as well, the two’s stances being mirror images of one another. The soldiers stopped and Luke, his mouth slightly open in astonishment, turned to Tess.

 “Tess, why did you-“

 “Please, just go.”

 Luke said nothing nor emoted anything. He had begun to think that her defending him was her way of forgiving him. But he was wrong, and there were few things, if anything that she could have said that could have hurt him more. The one thing he has truly afraid of, her not wanting him, was coming to pass. His eyes implored her for her to recant her demands.

 “Go now.” She said. “You’re right. I don’t want you here.”

 Luke’s arms fell slowly to his side and he stared at her with an expression he was unfamiliar with. He reached a hand out to touch her elbow. “Tess, please don’t-“

 Tess jerked her arm away. She was careful to avoid eye contact.  “No. I want you gone.”

 One of the soldiers helped the fallen Darks to their feet while one lead the man with the crunched hand from the room, his entire arm shaking as he went into shock. They were surrounding Luke. He gave no resistance.

 “So… You want me gone from the city?” Luke asked quietly. “Because I can do that. Just please let me-“

 “I want you gone from my life.” Tess said firmly. “Leave.”

 She left the room in a quick walk while Luke sorrowfully watched her every step. As she disappeared around the corner her footsteps could be heard breaking into an erratic run. Luke listened to her footsteps disappear down the hall, taking in the last physical evidence he’d get of his daughter. Several gun barrels were planted firmly in Luke’s back. The command that came was breathless and ragged.

 “Move.”

 Luke obliged. They forced him out of the door and down the hallway. They had no stabilizer, but Luke didn’t resist. He wanted to leave. There was no reason to stay anymore. All he could do now was dream of how he had survived prison, torture, and escape, and made it back to the last of his family only to throw them out of his life forever because it was true what everybody said about him: there was something wrong with him. He couldn’t be happy. He wanted to leave. There was an entire army of white-armored monsters waiting for him. His hatred for them was all he had left, and it was about time he got around to doing something about it.

Chapter 7

To: C.Valkner, C.Emery, C.Ryder, C.Proctor, General Alred, Cmdr. Vladmir Frenz…- via Communal Subnet.

From: Doctor T. Malcolm Rowlings C.I.P, C.M.D, S.P.A

 It is at the request of President Lynch that I issue this letter concerning the Durants and, of course Luke Semprys. Like the President, I was quite surprised to find the Durants and Darks capable of orchestrating and successfully executing such an elaborate attack. Though I will most likely be rebuked by this forthcoming comment, I applaud them for their continued ingenuity and bravery. I will first discuss in as much detail as possible, the Durant race and what a skilled Durant is capable of. It’s my hope and the hope of President Lynch that this knowledge may be used for the purpose of formulating and conducting effective counterstrikes against such a formidable opponent. First, how the Durants work as they do.

 The Durant, anatomically, is nearly identical to that of a human. However, on an atomic level, Durants and humans couldn’t be more different.  The Durant’s body tissue contains an element that I have yet to classify. It does not affect the physical properties of any skin or organ tissue but gives them the ability to sense Furo with any portion of their body. It’s like a sixth sense. We have sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. The Durants possess those same senses and have that sixth sense of being able to see the world through the sensation of Furo, which as you all know is a subatomic particle responsible for balancing out the positive mass of every atom and is the fundamental building block on which all matter is formed.

 The Durant brain is truly fascinating and I am remorseful that I didn’t save more specimens from the time when they were studied on a more intimate and regular level. It creates electromagnetic impulses which travel through the body through the nervous system and can be channeled into the surrounding environment. From that point a Durant is able reorganize Furo and the atoms to which it’s attached through a type of magnetism and create a seemingly limitless amount of offensive, defensive or completely benign constructions which I will review later.

 Now depending on the skill of the Durant, these electrical impulses can be as far reaching as a Durant’s line-of-sight (their line of sight not being limited to their visual senses but including the areas that can be sensed through their sensitivity to Furo. Note though, that it is extremely difficult and takes years of practice to produce vivid, Furo-based images in one’s head, be able to view all of one’s surroundings and even zoom out and view themselves from a third person perspective. Only those who are forced into such a practice, like Luke Semprys, typically take the time to master.). As such, it is important to space your stabilizers accordingly and try to make sure that the Durant is within that stabilized field. The skill that is required to stretch one’s abilities to those distances is immense and only the most experienced Durant is capable of doing so.

 Now onto the abilities that a Durant is or can potentially become capable of. Depending on the skill of the Durant these abilities may or may not be possible. In order to create the desired reactions a Durant must first gain a knowledge or an intuition as to how the atoms must be rearranged. The complexity of some Elemental reactions is spectacular and I myself am still in the process of discovering the how’s and why’s of Elemental. As those discoveries remain to be seen I will simply describe the known manipulations, starting with the most simple and working towards the more advanced.

 The first and most simple of Elemental is that of Fire.  Any Durant is capable of creating fire. It’s that simple. However, a skilled Durant can make raging infernos capable of consuming an entire platoon in a single column of flame. I remember watching the Darks take one of my research facilities just after the war for the Commune had been won. Only one man stood at the front of the army, juggling nearly a dozen columns of flame and incinerating an entire company within minutes. It’s my strong belief that that man was Luke Semprys.

 The second is the ability to freeze an object. Now it isn’t freezing in the typical sense of hot and cold. Rather, it’s the ability to restrain an atom from further movement, causing an object or person to become immobilized and frozen in place. However, Durants
are
capable of lowering an object’s temperature to extreme degrees.

 Next is plasma bolts, or more simply lightning. By duplicating the conditions existent in a lightning storm, the Durant is able to strike ground based targets with bolts of superheated plasma.

 Now Barriers are an interesting anomaly that I have yet to figure out. When done correctly a Barrier can be near impervious to any type of attack. One immediate instance that I recall involves the Durant champions Thompson and Ranjak. Together those two were able to hold a barrier stretching several hundred meters that repelled the fire of over twenty Forge Tanks while the Dark colony was evacuated. The barriers themselves are invisible, though they ripple with every object that impacts upon them. It’s a strange thing to see. Like rippling water that isn’t there, though a bright flash will result from a direct impact. But if you know that there is a barrier between you and the desired target, cease all fire immediately. Anybody who’s skilled enough to use it is skilled enough to repel any attack imposed upon it. Anything that doesn’t explode on impact will ricochet off and cause potential damage.

 The next ability is much more difficult to master, not because you must understand the different structures of Elemental, but rather be able to interpret and understand brain activity. The Durant brain is quite conductive to the electrical brainwaves of other living things and they are able to make different interpretations of what is going on in one’s mind, whether it be emotions, thoughts, or physical actions. This telepathy has lost us more valuable intelligence than I’d like to recite. Any soldier captured by the Darks should self-destruct at the first available chance.

 My most favorite form of Elemental is, for lack of a better term, known as a Grav-Field which can be created and eliminated at the will of the creator. Our understanding of the Grav-field has led us to a new era of propulsion and hover technology, giving us technological marvels such as the Helio battlecruiser. What it does is create a field of gravity alternate to the gravitational field created by the moon we live on. Many soldiers have reported seeing Durants fly. I find the assumption amusing and absurd. In order for it to work properly, a Grav-Field must have a gravitational attraction at least slightly stronger than that of the planet. The more powerful the Grav-Field the faster the acceleration due to alternate gravity. And there is an infinite amount of ways in which Grav-fields can be used. For example, one might create a Grav-Field and rise up in the air, reaching the desired altitude, eliminating that Grav-field and creating another in the direction they wish to travel. Through this process of creation and elimination a Durant can stay aloft indefinitely. Another example is how a Durant might have a set destination but there are objects in the way. They would then create weak Grav-fields that would pull them one way or the other and steer them away from harm while maintaining their progress towards the given destination. When it comes to Grav-fields, the usages are only limited by the user’s imagination and ingenuity.

 Now we get into the more destructive forms of Elemental. These can be extremely difficult to create as the Durant must be able to make a volatile substance that isn’t just destructive but destructive on massive scales. The other manipulations can be turned around and used to our advantage. However, the more dangerous forms of Elemental are purely towards our disadvantage. If you encounter a Durant who is capable of manipulating Furo to such a degree call in an emergency stabilizer without hesitation.