Galaxy of Empires- Merchant Wars Episode #1 (5 page)

“42, you have command. Make sure you notify
me immediately if we have any unwanted visitors. Gartooth, meet me
in the cargo bay with our landing party and bring the doctor with
us. Bring extra scanners of different types. If this place is some
sort of secret facility for the Elemental Empire, then it is always
good to be prepared. Must be something special if the undead are
interested in it. The Vampires are at war with many empires so,
that doesn’t mean much. I think only the Reptilian Empire is that
only one not at war with the undead, or at least not yet.”

Thirty minutes later, the ship sends down two
shuttlecrafts. They land next to what appears to be one of the main
entrances on the west side of the complex. Twenty fully armed
security guards with biotech armor along with Eve, Gartooth, and
Dr. Farshe get out of the shuttlecrafts. Eve is still in pain from
her injuries, but she is feeling better with the reinforced brace
that the doctor put on before they left the ship.

Eve says, “Let’s fan out and stay within
visual range. Do not go off alone anywhere. Lets go.” They walk
cautiously to the entrance and go inside. Using the high-beam
flashlights on their weapons and their bio-suits, they light up the
hallway. They come down to an intersection and see corpses of
humans and the undead in all directions. They see the ghastly sight
of some destroyed Bone Warriors. Bone Warriors are the undead foot
soldiers of the Vampire Empire. They are animated armored zombies
that have a highly contagious touch that will turn any living
creature into undead Bone Warriors. The humans bodies in the
hallway have flamethrowers and are scattered among the half-charred
undead. Some of the humans were burned just as the undead were, but
several of the others died from hand blaster damage or
explosives.

They go down several halls that are filled
with offices. They continue onward to another series of small
buildings that are research facilities and laboratories. Most of
those buildings are empty, except for some of the laboratories that
had some dead humans in them.

“Hmm…. Some of these humans in these labs
were not killed by the undead. They were killed with objects in the
laboratories. Also, I noticed that the undead on the west side were
killed in combat. These undead from the north- and east-side labs
have no marks on them at all and yet they all are dead,” Dr. Farshe
reported.

The group goes down some more hallways that
lead to a large chamber, the main laboratory. They walk inside this
vast chamber to see even more undead corpses mixed in with human
remains. None of the bodies seem to have been involved in any type
of fighting.

“Man, this place gives me heebie-jeebies,”
Gartooth remarked.

“These humans over here have no marks on
them, and my scanners are not picking up any type of damage or any
biological hazard, or at least any known biological hazard. This is
a covert laboratory, so there may be some unknown pathogen floating
about. Some of the computer systems here still work. I am trying to
access information now,” the doctor adds.

“Secure this area and do not leave this room.
Maybe we can find some valuable information on these computers that
we can use.”

Grimtooth remarks with a nervous tone, “Look
at these vampires over here…it looks like the life has been drained
out of them. I didn’t think vampires could feed on each other, or
why would they? I do not understand. Holy crap, these Bone Warriors
have the same markings, what the hell could drain a Bone Warrior?”
The entire landing party is beginning to feel very uneasy about
this place.

Eve says, “I sense a presence here, a
telepath. I can feel the emotions: very chaotic, alone, angry,
hungry, confusion. A very powerful mind.”

Dr. Farshe says, “This laboratory facility
was researching biological weapons according to these records. The
experiments included a lot of genetic experimentation with
half-breed mixing, most notably with telepathic races and creatures
with telepathic abilities. Some of these records are 30 years old.
One of the projects named in these records is project Evella.”

“What...?” interjected Eve.

“There was a project with your name on it
that, according to these records, they were experimenting on
reptilian and human telepathy to try and make a more powerful
telepath as a means of defense against the undead. They were trying
to make a telepathic slave warrior. The only successful subject was
lost about 30 years ago in transit: Subject 37.”

“That was me, which means I was created here
before I escaped or should I say rescued by pirates,” Eve said. “Is
there any other mention of me?”

“Query, Evella. While it is doing that, I am
downloading all information from this computer onto our ship’s
computer,” the doctor paused. “Yes, there is one other reference to
project Evella. It is in another project called Evella 2. This
project took some of the DNA from Subject 37 and mixed it with a
human male with a high PSI rating. This new formula was introduced
into new hybrids that were supposed to give the hybrids the ability
to kill vampires and other undead in the same fashion that vampires
killed living beings via drainings. In addition, these hybrids also
transmitted a very infectious disease to all forms of the undead.
Subjects E2-135 and E2-136 were the first successful hybrids to
survive the process and who retained the abilities of the project’s
goal. There were some side effects that gave these two subjects the
ability to drain the magic force out of sorcerers whether they were
undead or not.”

“What that means is they can kill sorcerers
in the same fashion they kill vampires by draining the magical
force out of them. Undead are primarily given life by magical
force, whereas living beings have a different type of life force.
Vampires feed off the life force type that living beings have.
Telepaths have a different type of life force and thus are the
reason for these experimental projects. The researchers basically
redesigned a telepath and made it function similar to a vampire but
with the requirements of feeding off of magical energy. In simpler
terms, a reverse vampire.”

“In addition, the telepathic energy that is
used to drain magical beings also carries a similar contagion like
the undead, except it only infects a host with a magical life
force. Basically, it is the undead virus in reverse. This virus is
more powerful, though, because it resides in its host even after
death for an infinite period of time. That means it is a
booby-trapped corpse. Any undead or sorcerer who comes within range
or touches the body gets infected.”

“Sounds like people playing God, and it looks
like one of their experiments decided to kill their masters after
they got freed by some unfortunate vampire,” Eve states in a
not-surprising tone. “I can feel them. They are here, and they are
powerful and have no control over their abilities—it is likely a
child or children.”

“You are the mother of those monsters, so do
not forget that. Remember that they were not a willing participant
in these experiments,” the doctor reminds Eve. “Upload almost
complete.”

“Good, then we’re getting out of here. I will
not stick around this place, as I’m getting a bad vibe,” Gartooth
says.

“Yes, I agree,” Eve says.

They begin to move out the same way as they
came in and they noticed that the hall that they came down had
finally collapsed, so they had to backtrack and go a different way.
They decide to travel north. They go up a ways to a four-way
intersection and hear some noises coming down the dark hallway, but
cannot not pinpoint from which direction. Eve gives Gartooth the
signal and gestures to go down the North Hall.

“Why do I always get chosen to go down the
creepy hall of doom first?” Gartooth signs. He creeps slowly down
the hall with his laser rifle pointed in front. Then suddenly, one
of the guards behind him farts very loudly, causing Gartooth to
jump backward in fear.

“Really? Seriously?” He looks back and frowns
at the guard. The guard just shrugs his shoulders apologetically.
Gartooth hears snickering from various sources in the group behind
him as he turns to continue. They go down the hallway, slowly
checking each room. They discover a large room off to the left,
which evidently is the cafeteria. They assume there might be a way
out through the kitchen or elsewhere. They enter the cafeteria
doorway single file with Eve and Gartooth in front.

Suddenly, two figures come hurling through
the doorway on the other side of the cafeteria with glowing blue
eyes. They leap up onto a table and hiss with fangs glaring.

“Vampires! Open fire!” Gartooth says. Laser
beams start firing at the shadowy figures, as blasters hit the two
figures as well as parts of the wall behind them. Neither of the
targets seem to be affected by the blasts. One of them launches a
lightning bolt, hitting Gartooth in the chest and slamming him
backwards into the wall. The other one releases an uncanny
screeching sound, and the guards start fighting each other in
chaos.

Eve yells, “Get back into the hall now!” as
she releases a massive telepathic wind blast that picks up all of
the tables and chairs and sends them flying upward, sweeping the
two figures along with debris into the wall and making a loud
crashing sound. The force was so great it punched a hole in wall
leading to the kitchen area. The entire area shakes as the lights
flicker on and off. Eve feels the violent rage, confusion, and pain
from the two telepaths as they slowly emerged from the pile of
rubble. Eve is in the room alone as the others watch on a monitor
outside the hall. Eve grabs them telepathically and hoists them up
into the air and holds them while trying to focus on suppressing
their telepathic abilities. She feels that these two beings are
very powerful telepaths who had no discipline, no way to control
their powers. She also senses that these test subjects have no idea
what is going on and are totally confused. She notices they are
wearing metallic collars around their necks—maybe some sort of
control device put on by their creators or maybe something that was
supposed to inhibit their abilities but is failing to do so. She is
straining to hold both of them as they are incredibly powerful
minds but very chaotic. She removes the neck devices with her mind.
As the devices fall to the floor, the test subjects’ chaos and pain
subside at a rapid pace. Perhaps their creators did not realize the
neck devices did not have the effect they were hoping for. Instead
of controlling them, they cause their subjects to go insane.

“Relax, calm down. No one is going to hurt
you. It will be okay,” Eve said telepathically and sent images of a
peaceful and relaxing nature. She looked into their minds and even
though their bodies were probably teens or young adult, they seemed
to have the education and social skills of a five-year-old. This is
probably because their creators were only interested in using them
as controllable weapons. They did not even speak a language yet,
but they could still communicate telepathically. They calm down and
talk to Eve telepathically.

“Where are we? What is this place? I am
scared. What is going on? Why are people so mean to us? We are
confused.”

“We are leaving this horrible place,
children. I will protect you from harm. Everything will be okay. No
one will be experimenting on you anymore.”

“Who are you? Why are you wearing a suit like
those mean people?”

“The suit is used to protect me against
things that might harm me. You do not need to wear one of these
suits because things that can harm me cannot harm you for the most
part. I am your mother,” Eve flatly states. She looks at them and
notices they resemble vampires, but they are different in several
aspects. Apparently, they do not need oxygen survive, and walking
out in open space does not seem to bother them, much like
undead.

“Come with me, children, as we must leave
this place at once. It is dangerous to stay here.” She gives them a
hug and reassures them everything is okay. The two young girls
leave the room holding their mother’s hands. Out in the hall, the
rest of the crew is sitting there watching the monitor out in the
hall but not understanding what is going on since most of the
conversation was done telepathically.

“Um…so what is up, Boss,” Gartooth says,
wanting understand.

“It will be okay; these are my daughters, and
I am taking them with me. They had some sort of collar on them that
I think it was supposed to control them, but instead it was driving
them insane. They have the mental development of about a four- or
five-year-old. They can’t even speak a language yet, which is
understandable since their creators were not interested in their
educational and social development as they simply wanted a
controllable weapon. In my mind, those sadistic bastards got what
was coming to them for what they did to my girls and me. Call it
poetic justice,” Eve said. “I can communicate with them
telepathically though.”

“Okay, but we will need to keep them separate
from the crew until I can confirm that they are not contagious to
us. There is one thing I would like to note, they do not register
as living beings or undead; instead, they are something else a new
sentient life form,” Dr. Farshe explains. She looks at Gartooth’s
bio-armor and sees a huge hole.

“It is okay, Doc. It did not go all the way
through as this armor is pretty tough. I could not have taken a
second hit—that is for sure. Guess I got lucky. A minor flesh
wound,” the crocodile winks.

“Back to the ship. Let’s go.”

After about 30 minutes, the landing party is
back on board. Eve’s daughters freak out a lot of the crew at first
but nonetheless they are taken in. The daughters are placed in
bio-suits and moved to Eve’s quarters. The doctor starts running
tests on them to make sure that they are not infectious to the
crew.