NOVGO.NET Chapter 68: The One They Kept
Chapter 68: The One They Kept
The first piece of the vault door crossed the room hard enough to break the opposite wall. Dorn pulled Tessa down before the second followed.
Nate moved on instinct. Killing Step took him left. A slab of black metal passed close enough to drag air across his face and buried itself in the corridor behind him.
Then something came through the opening.
It had once been the same kind of creature they’d killed above. Maybe. This one was too large. Its front limbs were thick enough to carry most of its body without the rear pair touching the floor. Pale armor covered its torso in overlapping layers, but sections had grown into ridges, hooks and blunt protrusions that didn’t match the rest of its anatomy.
The vertical mouth opened.
One of the Field Command soldiers fired first. The shot hit its chest. The creature stopped. Actually stopped. The impact remained visible as a depression in the armor.
Then the dent vanished.
Forsaken Claim hammered against Nate’s senses.
REJECTED RESONANCE DETECTED
The creature lunged. Dorn met it. Her Third Circuit opened, the pressure change striking Nate before the sound did. She caught one forelimb and turned. The creature’s entire front half crashed into the vault frame. Black metal buckled.
It should have stayed there. Instead one of its rear limbs planted against the floor. Its body twisted around Dorn’s hold. Too far. Bones or whatever supported it should have broken. They didn’t.
Dorn released it before the movement could trap her arm. "Darek."
He was already there. His baton hit the joint Nate had cut on the smaller creature. Nothing happened. The armor had thickened over the vulnerable point.
The thing swept one limb across the room. Darek ducked. The Field Command soldier wasn’t fast enough. The impact caught him across the chest and threw him into the wall. Tessa shouted his name.
Nate entered. He didn’t aim for the armor. The mouth opened as the creature tracked Dorn, thin strands unfolding from inside.
Nate went lower. Killing Step put him inside the reach of the nearest limb. Current entered halfway through his movement. A small correction. Nothing like Second Vector could have done. Enough to move his head away from a strand.
Mourning Edge formed. He cut into the softer tissue under the jaw. The blade went deep. Dark fluid poured down his hand. The creature convulsed.
Then the wound began closing around Graveshare. Nate didn’t pull out. "Dorn!"
She saw it. Her hand closed around the creature’s upper plate. Third Circuit current surged. She tore. The armor separated where Graveshare prevented it from sealing. The creature screamed.
Darek struck the opening. Once. Something cracked. A pale mass became visible beneath the plates. It pulsed.
Forsaken Claim reacted so violently Nate nearly lost his grip. Text flooded his vision.
REJECTED RESONANCE DETECTEDMULTIPLE PATTERNSORIGIN NOT WITNESSED
The creature snapped toward him. Nate couldn’t move his blade quickly enough. A front limb struck his shoulder. The restored joint held. His body didn’t. He hit the floor and rolled. Pain crossed his ribs.
Dorn stepped between him and the creature. "Stay down."
Nate pushed himself up. "Still working on that."
She didn’t have time to answer. The creature charged.
Dorn fought differently once she stopped trying to control it. The first exchange had been restraint. The second wasn’t. Her Circuit widened. Nate felt the room tighten around her.
The creature struck. Dorn drove one hand into the incoming limb. The impact stopped with a sound like stone breaking. The floor beneath her boots cracked. Then she stepped forward. The creature went backward.
Darek moved with her. Every time Dorn created an opening, he hit the same damaged section.
Nate watched for three seconds. There. Its body wasn’t healing. Not exactly. The armor closed, the tissue returned, but each restoration followed a pattern. Same angle. Same sequence. The front plate first. Then the lower tissue. Then the pale mass beneath.
"Same place," Nate said.
Darek heard him. "What?"
"It comes back the same way."
The creature struck Dorn again. She shifted aside. Nate pointed with Mourning Edge. "Every time it closes, the centre shows for half a second."
Dorn didn’t ask how certain he was. "Make it happen."
Nate moved. The creature tracked him this time. Good. He approached from the damaged side. It swung. Nate committed right. The limb followed. Current entered mid-step. His correction was small.
The creature adjusted. Too fast. Nate couldn’t fully escape the second strike. The limb caught his thigh. Pain flashed through his leg. He stayed upright.
Rovan had learned that before any Skill had helped him. A bad step didn’t need to become a fall.
Nate entered anyway. Mourning Edge cut the previous wound. The armor started closing. He twisted the blade. The plate caught. For half a second, the pale centre appeared.
Dorn hit it. Her fist disappeared into the creature’s torso. The back plates burst outward. The thing froze. Dorn ripped her arm free. The pale mass came with it.
It was larger than Nate expected. Almost the size of a human head. Thin strands wrapped around a black centre. Several strands were still moving.
Dorn threw it to the floor. The creature collapsed. Its armor tried to pull itself together. Nothing happened.
Darek crushed the black centre beneath his baton.
Forsaken Claim stopped screaming. The sudden absence left Nate dizzy.
Tessa was already beside the injured Field Command soldier. "Alive."
Dorn looked at the vault. More movement came from inside. Everyone heard it.
Darek exhaled. "How many?"
Nate looked through the ruptured seal. At least three shapes moved in the dark.
Dorn touched her communicator. "Fall back."
Tessa looked up. "The vault."
"Will still be here."
A sound came from behind them. The corridor they’d entered through shifted. The floor rose near the junction. One wall moved across the exit.
Dorn’s expression changed. "Maybe not."
The first creature appeared inside the vault. Then a second. The third stayed farther back.
Darek looked at the damaged soldier. "Can’t carry him and fight."
Dorn made the decision immediately. "Inside."
Tessa stared at her. "The vault?"
"The things are coming out of it."
"Exactly."
Dorn grabbed the injured soldier under one arm. "They’re between us and the corridor. Move."
It sounded insane. Nate followed anyway.
Vault Four was much larger than the exterior suggested. The broken seal opened onto a central chamber with rows of storage columns disappearing into darkness. Some had collapsed. Others remained upright. Each column contained narrow black capsules like the one inside Field Unit 03. Most slots were empty. Some had shattered from within.
Nate didn’t like that.
Dorn carried the wounded soldier behind the nearest row. Tessa followed. Darek and the remaining Field Command soldier took the opposite side.
Nate looked toward the entrance. The first creature entered. Then stopped. Its head turned toward the storage columns. The strands inside its mouth moved.
"It wants something," Nate said.
Darek looked at him. "Everything wants something."
The creature crossed toward the nearest occupied slot. That was worse.
Nate’s interface flickered.
REJECTED RESONANCE DETECTED
The creature’s hand struck a storage column. One capsule fell. It hit the floor. Cracked. Something passed through the room. Nate felt it rather than saw it.
The creature convulsed. Its right forelimb changed. The armor thickened. A broad plate grew across the outside of the joint.
Tessa stared. "Did that thing just use the pattern?"
No one answered. They didn’t need to.
The creature hit the floor with its altered limb. A pressure wave crossed the chamber. One of the storage columns toppled.
"Don’t let them break those!" Tessa shouted.
Darek looked at the dozens of columns. "Wonderful."
The second creature entered. Dorn lowered the wounded soldier. "Calder."
Nate drew Graveshare again. "Yeah."
"Find your miracle."
He looked at her. "You’re serious?"
"I’m about to keep three of those away from a room full of whatever makes them worse." She opened her Circuit. "Be quick."
That was enough.
Nate ran between the storage rows. Most labels were unreadable. Codes. Dates. Failure marks.
DEPLETEDCORRUPTEDUNSTABLE
His third Node reacted constantly now. Second Vector remained separate in reserve. He ignored it.
WB-17. That was all he needed.
Another impact shook the vault. Dorn shouted something behind him. Nate kept moving.
A storage column had fallen across the third row. He climbed over it. Three intact capsules remained inside. Wrong codes. Next row.
A creature screamed. Graveshare warmed against his arm. One of the roster links was active somewhere behind him. Nate hated knowing what that meant. He didn’t look.
Next column.
WB-09
Not it.
WB-12
Nate stopped. Same family? He touched nothing. The next slot was empty. Then:
WB-17
His pulse jumped. The capsule was there. Black. Small enough to hold in one hand. The label beneath it remained readable.
PATTERN STATUS: RETAINED
He reached toward it. Stopped. Portable Field Unit. Host connection. Permanent selection damage. He couldn’t use the pattern here. He only needed to get it out.
The capsule had a mechanical release. Nate pressed it. Nothing. A red indicator appeared.
AUTHORIZED FIELD UNIT REQUIRED
"Of course."
Another crash. Much closer. Nate looked around. The column connected to the floor through a thick power conduit. Old Imperial construction. Rovan had nothing useful for this. Graveshare did.
Nate formed Mourning Edge. One cut through the casing beside the lock. The reserve dropped. He cut again. The storage column sparked. An alarm started.
"Calder!" Tessa shouted from somewhere behind him.
"Working on it!"
The third cut opened the housing. Nate reached inside. The capsule released.
The moment his fingers closed around WB-17, Forsaken Claim reacted. He expected another detection warning. Instead:
RESIDUAL SKILL PATTERNORIGIN NOT WITNESSEDCLAIM UNAVAILABLE
Nate knew. Then another line appeared.
EXTERNAL RECONSTRUCTION REQUIRED
The machine upstairs could do that much, at least.
Something hit him from behind. Nate went over the broken column. The capsule stayed in his hand. He rolled and came up facing the third creature.
It had reached him without opening its mouth. Smaller than the first two. Faster. One front limb had changed after consuming a pattern, long black ridges running from elbow to claw.
Nate moved left. It followed. Killing Step. The creature corrected. Nate’s improvised current timing changed his movement. Not enough. A claw opened his side. He felt fabric tear. Then skin.
Nate stumbled behind a column. Warm blood ran down his hip. The creature came around it immediately.
Nate looked at WB-17 in his left hand. He couldn’t fight while protecting the capsule. He shoved it inside his vest.
The creature lunged. Nate met it. Mourning Edge hit the reinforced forelimb. The impact jarred his shoulder. Still healthy.
He let the creature push. Changed his weight. Killing Step put him inside its next commitment. The claw came back. Nate ducked. His knee nearly failed. He drove Graveshare into the side of its torso. Not deep enough.
The thing struck him with the other limb. Nate hit a storage column. Pain exploded across his back.
His hidden interface opened.
RESERVED SKILLSECOND VECTOR
He could integrate it. Right now. Fill the third Node. Gain the exact thing he needed against something that kept correcting his movement.
Nate stared at the prompt for less than a second. Then closed it.
WB-17 pressed against his chest. He had waited this long. He wasn’t spending the Node now.
The creature charged. Nate opened his First Circuit wider. Too wide. The restored shoulder pathway resisted. He pushed through it.
Rovan’s memory surfaced. Mud. A Vein Hound. An unfinished route. Movement before current.
Nate stepped. The creature followed. He waited longer than was comfortable. Then changed. The correction was tiny. Ugly. Enough to make the claw pass beside his neck.
Nate entered. Mourning Edge went through the vertical mouth. The creature convulsed. Its teeth or inner strands closed around Graveshare.
Nate didn’t withdraw. He drove forward. The blade reached the dark centre.
The creature hit him twice before it stopped. The second strike numbed his left arm. Then the body collapsed on top of him.
Nate shoved it away. His side was bleeding badly. His Core was low. His knee hurt. He checked the capsule. Still there.
Darek appeared at the end of the row. He looked at the corpse. Then Nate. "You found it."
Nate stood carefully. "Yeah."
Darek saw the blood. "You also found everything else."
"Pretty much."
A roar shook the vault. Dorn shouted. Darek turned. "Time to go."
"The corridor?"
"Moved back."
"How convenient."
"It won’t stay."
They ran. Dorn had killed one of the remaining creatures. The last was still alive. Barely. Its entire left side had been crushed. It dragged itself toward an occupied storage column anyway.
Tessa saw Nate. "You have it?"
He pulled the black capsule from his vest. Her eyes widened. "That’s WB-17?"
Dorn looked over. The creature moved. Dorn kicked it away from the storage column hard enough to send it through another row. "Save the questions."
They lifted the wounded soldier. The corridor outside had reopened. Different shape. Same general direction. Nobody cared. They ran.
Nate stayed at the rear. Forsaken Claim screamed almost continuously until they crossed the vault threshold. Then it weakened.
At the first junction, the building shifted again. Everyone hit the wall. The route behind them narrowed. The vault door disappeared from view.
Dorn kept moving. Nate followed. WB-17 felt absurdly light inside his vest.
They reached Western Access twelve minutes later. The wounded soldier went to medical. Tessa took WB-17 from Nate with both hands.
"Containment."
Nate hesitated before letting go. She noticed. "So did I."
He released it. The capsule disappeared into a sealed case.
Renn was waiting outside Operations. Her eyes went straight to the case. "You found it."
Dorn removed her helmet. "We found several things."
"WB-17?"
Tessa nodded.
Renn looked at Nate. "Of course."
Nate sat against the wall before his knee decided for him. Nora arrived, saw the blood on his side and swore. "Shirt."
"I’m fine."
"Remove it."
He did. The cut wasn’t deep. Body Memory could handle it easily. Nora cleaned it first anyway.
Across the room, technicians moved the sealed WB-17 case toward Field Unit 03. Nate watched. The Reclamation Frame could turn that eighty-year-old rejected pattern into a real Skill proposal. Once. And according to every surviving file, whoever accepted it would never receive another natural Skill proposal again.
Nate looked at his hidden interface.
THIRD NODEEMPTY
Then:
RESERVED SKILLSECOND VECTOR
He already had a good choice. A very good one.
The sealed case disappeared behind the Operations doors.
Nate closed his interface.
Good wasn’t what he’d gone into Vault Four for.