Parallel Vol.2 [Legacy Edition]

Chapter 37: Gamble

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A man in full battle armour stomped across the metal walkway, helmet obscuring his face from view. He wielded a large assault rifle held across his chest with the ease of a professional. The desert sand picked up, causing him curse once again. He didn't know what was so urgent he'd been called here, but whatever it was, he might be stuck here till the storm passed.

He stopped in front of a metal door and gave it his identification. It scanned the I.D card, assessed his voice, then promptly slid open, having confirmed his credentials.

The man grunted as he stepped inside, taking off his helmet only after the door shut and the air had pressurized. A light brown ponytail slid appreciatively off the helmet's insides and down, no longer trapped in its cage.

He held the helmet in his left hand and massaged his forehead with his forefinger and thumb, then wiped a bead of sweat trickling down his blue skin. He promptly walked down the only hallway in the lonely outpost, eager to get this assignment over with.

He passed through a connecting bridge, then another checkpoint, which thankfully, led to the control room he was looking for.

The control room was a small auditorium filled with rows of tables and workstations were employees once sat to observe and study the stars above. It was empty now though, dust and spiders the only interested parties.

A sound from the front row caught his attention.

Oh yeah, there was one person left here. A man who insisted on chasing wild fantasies. Dark grey eyes scanned the room for the man who had summoned him to this forgotten place.

"Haha!" A man laughed, screaming while he did so as he rose from behind a workstation. "That you Dark!? What'd I tell ya!? Told you I'd find it! Took me twenty-five years, but I found it, the blasted thing!"

The man called Dark set his helmet down on one of the tables and approached him. "Speak Bruce, I don't have time for this."

"Fine, fine. No patience seriously," Bruce grumbled as he shuffled over to one of the still functioning workstations. "Look up there." He pointed at a giant screen overhead on the wall that displayed... nothing. Just a bunch of stars.

Dark frowned. "What am I supposed to be looking at Bruce?"

"That is point 32 Delta, 65 Gardon, 128 Java. This is what it looks like now. But..." Bruce clicked something, and the image on the screen changed. "That was thirty hours ago."

Dark's eyes widened in shock. "What the fuck am I looking at Bruce?"

"Looks like a giant mask, in my opinion." Bruce offered.

He returned the ridiculous statement with an incredulous glare. "I can see that much! I mean that planet! What the fuck's a planet doing there?"

"Don't know, frankly. One second it wasn't there, next it was, then another... poof, gone. Best guess there's some sort of cloaking device."

"For a whole planet? Nothing has that kind of power."

"I'm a scientist, not a god Dark," Bruce stated. "We wanna know what's there, we gotta investigate. Send a drone or two maybe."

Dark frowned. "Those are expensive. Don't think Siri has any to spare."

"Then get her to change her mind," Bruce retorted, tone rising rapidly. "I stayed behind in this hellhole for twenty five years Dark, Twenty-Fucking-Five Years! All so I could save you ungrateful lot! With the amount of radiation poisoning I got, I won't live long enough to see how this pans out anyway. So, when I say I need one or two measly drones, you get that bitch Siri to fucking deliver! Got it!?"