Welcome, again, Wanderers.
This post was the second installment of the previous Scribble, but not the last yet. I was also planning to use the Remniscience Universe for more than this series--but don't get your hope high.
The Scribble Starts Here
Raina rushed into the building right after Ray activated the Blast Jamming, the confused guards hadn't enough time to pull out their physical bullet riffles. Stepping over the cleanly cauterized corpses, Raina pressed her communicator.
"Guards eliminated. Red is going to the meeting room, keep the Blast Jamming up."
"Be careful, they might have physical weapons."
"Got it. I already sensed ominous feelings here. Could you do another scan?"
"Wait a sec... They're gone! I lost all 15 personel!"
"What? Could they camouflaged or something?"
"No, it might be a tad outdated, but the Confederation sensors won't be fooled by Five World Alliance or Black Syndicates camos. They're simply that advanced."
"Then, they died? Or teleported?"
"Don't be silly. Warping infantries directly would kill them. There were reasons why even smallest spaceships are larger than average airships. And none of those people were Remniscient."
As far as they know, there were still no space-manipulation related Remniscience, but just like Raina's self regeneration, the possibility existed that it was simply not recorded in any database they could access.
"Then the only possibility is they died. Check the atmospheric composition."
"No harmful chemical detected. Temperature and pressure nominal. My guess was infighting. The data terminal is still active, so we could still move on with the mission."
"Got it. Check for hyperspace signature anyway, there is no harm in checking." Raina lifted her riffle as she moved closer to the door. "I'm coming in."
She kicked the door, and greeted by empty, dark room. It was a typical meeting room, with sixteen seats with terminal screens circling a holographic projector. She activated the night vision, before the projector suddenly activated.
"Greetings, Red Artium. You sure took your time, so I took the liberty to eliminate all other council members. If you don't know yet, this is the meeting room for the Athlan Council of Agis vel Yuh. Just like your Kurayami no Iro, they are a criminal organization under the Black Syndicate, specializing in weapon sales and development." a slender, black man in his thirties with black business suit appeared through the projector.
"Blue, track him."
"Don't bother. I'm not here to oppose you. In fact, stealing the data your client requested would work in our favor. Please, take your seat and do your job."
"Well, I won't refuse your hospitality." Raina walked to the terminal, and attached a fiber interface to its side from her communicator.
"I'm done." several seconds later, Ray spoke to his communicator, and Raina detached the interface.
"Now, I would like to propose something to you, or more precisely, to the Kurayami no Iro."
"Before that, how exactly did you eliminate the council members?"
"Red, I detect spatial anomaly in the room, just like the one from hyperspace engine. Probably he force-warped the council members--I can't interfere with it, so be careful."
"That's easy. This building had built in hyperspace engine, by fine tuning the targeting system, I could create a microspace to encase the council members." Raina was dumbstruck by his casual demeanor.
"You said that easy but, it requires astronomical amount of calculation, isn't it?"
"Let's not bother with the trivial matters."
"So, what proposal are you talking about? Kurayami no Iro is a bit picky about business partnership."
"Okay. I'm proposing a partnership regarding sales of a certain weapon. The market for energy blasters today was dominated by three models, precise focusing ion blaster, wide area incineration plasma blaster, and rapid-fire low-power plasma blaster."
"And you suggesting that Agis vel Yuh had a fourth kind of weapon that could revolutionize the modern battlefield."
"Yes. It is the Rapid Fire Electron Blaster. There were actually several model of subatomic particle weapons, but most of it was intended to be fitted on board a spaceship. This RFE Blaster we developed would be the first to put this kind of weapon into sub-planetary uses."
"Electron blasters, huh? And how exactly did you want us to assist you? We're mercenaries, not salesman."
"We, or rather, I would supply you with te prototype weapon, as in how it would assist me, it would be clear from the documents you manage to acquire from us. And oh, pardon my late introduction, my nickname is Legis El. Nice too meet you, Red Artium, or rather, Kurayami no Iro, as the Blue side is recording this through a drone, am I correct?"
"Red, get out of there, we got hostiles incoming."
"Roger that. Legis El, how would you supply us with these weapons?"
"A cargo ship would crash to this building tomorrow. Recover its content, which was several rifles and machine guns intended for APC mounting, and you would be good to go. I'm also transferring credits to Blue Nine right now, for the recovery mission as the cover."
"Got it. Blue, destroy the roof. Use your drone to distract the hostiles."
"I'm on it." the hologram flickered, before a fragment of the roof crushed the projector. Raina ran towards the backdoor as the drone rushed to different direction, misleading the intruders.
"I'm going to pickup point CW-25, can you send a car my way?"
"I'll pick you up myself. The drone could operate with its internal AI."
Raina ran through the shadows of high-rise building, most of it was warehouse of some shady organization or another, much like her Kurayami no Iro. The pick-up point CW-25 was in front of one such warehouse, with the whole interior cooled with liquid nitrogen. She can't begin to imagine what kind of horror was contained behind the thermal insulation double-doors.
Nor could she care.
Just as she pressed the communicator, an old-fashioned electric motorcycle with more modification than her hands could count stopped right in front of her. A man in navy blue leather jacket and jeans sat on top of it, with similarly colored helmet. The man offered a crimson full-face helmet to her.
"Let's go." the man--Ray, said to Raina, who took the helmet and sat in the passenger seat. In no time, the motorcycle weaved its way through the city to the Kurayami no Iro base.
"I'm transferring the data that we acquired from the terminal. It was a battle, no, a war plan. It's in the Deneb Confederation format, they are recruiting mercenaries from the Black Syndicate to launch a large-scale attack right into the heart of Five Worlds Alliance."
"That was ridiculous. Sure, they have more advanced technology, but they won't even make it past Earth orbit. They would simply outnumbered by the military."
"That is where Agis vel Yuh's electron blaster come into the game. The electron blaster could be used to disable orbital defense system surrounding Earth, and its rapid fire capability meant we could disable spaceships too."
"Wait, I thought their blasters were developed as sub-planetary weapons?"
"Who said they can't made it big enough to be capital ship main cannon? Either way, our Deneb Confederation pipelines confirmed that they're planning a war." they stopped in front of a dull gray metal building, the current headquarter of Kurayami no Iro.
"A war, huh?" Raina muttered as they entered the building. "I just hope the Colors are all on the same side."
"Well, the current Kurayami no Iro was just a shadow of the original Colors, after all." as the automatic door opened, a room with fifteen huge screens covering the wall greeted them.
Raina sat in front of one of the screens, and as Ray opened the various data retrieved from the Agis vel Yuh's terminal, her mind wandered into the past, when the Kurayami no Iro were known as 'Colors'....
To be Continued.
