SECTOR 10 (The CLOUD 2)

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 14

In a race for time, the three volunteer scientists are lucky to avoid bounty Xavier Moth before they cross timelines. While Tuas prepared the accelerator time capsule, Xavier stalked an outpost near Yhemlen's Pangaea city barrier, preparing himself to match signals. Not far away, the starship Nemesis manages with the help of Frost across the cloud interface as the Heinemann receives updates from the Grey Order station; constant contact keeps the Heinemann crew on precise coordinates in space before they can penetrate Earth's atmosphere.

Immediate plans for their attack have changed now that Captain Gereon has shut off all communications to the outside. He wants to avoid messages from the Grey Order's Grandmaster. Handicapped by The Concord's objective to slow the strike, Gereon sees no reason to abandon his blitzkrieg on the Yhemlen city center with small talk. At the low orbit station, Frost's stoop at a railing is unchanging, he has been there for hours. And he's beginning to agree with Gereon on forwarding this battle. Ironically, Frost wants to use this moment to rekindle what he recognizes as a duty to perish along with his crew. Vengeance will not be tolerated without a fully backed attack.

Frost's prosthetic legs have durable metallic rods keeping him upright on the buffed floor. It has been over a day now since the Syndicate rebels made their surprise attack on Alon Blane's trial. The Mirai and Grey Order are making more enemies than friends, and Grandmaster Frost's indifference contributes to the problem. It's all too familiar a circumstance for Frost, and the pain in his chest is reminding him of something. Where the astral stone caves in his sternum a thought percolates throughout his senses making him tingle all over. Just then, a vision strikes his imaginings. He returns to a time of primitive war, the middle of the twentieth century when he was still part of the Third Reich. How he could continue to live for so many years is hard to believe. There must be interference in the cosmic web somewhere causing these flare-ups of memories, and there is. Those three volunteer scientists are visiting Frost before all of this ever transpired. When Frost was still human.

After the trial assembly concluded proceedings—fraught in danger from Old World vagabonds, the image spectrometry room was used as a location positioning system to keep tabs on the transport ship Syndicate pirates stole. Captain Gereon's crew is much farther away in the space-time continuum, and Frost finally commands reinforcement striker and starship fleets to be deployed. With more than a few missing fleets from previous battles, the Grey Order henchmen are on their way to finishing what the Heinemann started. Infiltrating Pangaea's dome city with loud battle cries won't deter return fire when the Yhemlen are faced by blitzkrieg, but it will help.

"This is not the time," Frost pleads to Gereon across the cloud interface. The cosmic web can be jump-circuited in the event someone shuts it down. The transmission will only last a short time.

Hearing his detestation through a speaker at the front cockpit where he sits, Jasper recognizes the danger Gereon is putting them in. Madame Ria still hasn't budged from the back fuselage area. And just as Jasper begins to respond, a rapid, wailing arm from Gereon shuts him down as he strikes his co-pilot son. Ria stands partially inert near the back lodging, where she begins rocking back and forth to the raddling chamber of the Nemesis increasing speed, cradled by loose pieces of gear hanging from her thin extremities.

"The ultimate test of wills is to face death," Gereon says, still holding onto the injustice he believes he's been dealt by living so long in unfulfillment. This is the same pride that Frost detests. Someone must suffer that perilous end.

Thinking of the consequences that will be reaped from this attack Frost walks back to the image spectrometry center, considering the expanse of space where multitudes of ships, workers, and transport material travel to and from the Fortress Shield in low orbit. He knows that Gereon is beginning to become gripped by the pull of emotion, rather than the logic Mirai are trained to accept—he's been battle-tested for this fight. Across a silver railing, the reflection of a distorted body gives Frost memories of who he used to be before mutating into a Grey like the rest.