An Unlikely Friend. part 1

Chapter 31: It Couldn't be Worse

“I thought this place was secured general?” King Kamin asks while his eyes blaze with indignation.

“It is King Kamin,” the general says. “Don't worry. You and your family are completely safe.”

“Safe? I’m not worried about safety but your complete lack of competence insults me.” The king turns to Isis. “Who’s attacking us?”

Isis looks at the general and back to the king. “It looks like Erohsians.”

“What?” The king roars. “You come here talking about peace and then attack us during dinner?”

The general holds up his hands, palms out. “There must be a mistake. I can assure you this is not our doing.”

The king looks directly into the general’s eyes. “For your sake, I hope not.” He turns away and begins yelling commands at the Borukin guards.

“What the hell’s going on Isis? General Lark asks.

“I don’t know sir. We’ve pushed back their first assault and have barricaded the door. I don’t think they have any more explosives to break through so it should hold fine. Reinforcements are on their way. This should be wrapped up shortly.”

“Good. Keep me updated and for the Creators’ sake, don’t let anything happen to the Borukins.”

“Yes sir.” Isis moves back to the secured doors where faint thuds can be heard from the other side. Erohsian guards are scattered behind make shift cover and all are aiming at the door. On her holographic screen she finds the reinforcements are only a few floors down.

“Reinforcements are almost here,” Isis says to the guards. “When they arrive I want to hit the hostiles from both sides. They look like Erohsians so watch your friendly fire.”

The guards nod in understanding and Isis pulls the security camera of the hallway back up and she taps on one of the hostile Erohsians. A profile of an Erohsian soldier pops up with an elevated Aether level.

What’s up with that?

She taps on the other hostiles and notices they all have higher than normal Aether levels for an Erohsian. She sends a note over the combat channel to link hostile Erohsians to elevated levels of Aether.

She sees friendly indicators of Erohsians pop up on the far side of the hallway. Flashes of light zip down the hall and explode off the barricades of the hostiles. The ones working on the banquet doors give up and move to face the new threat.

Isis signals the guards and they begin to clear the doors. The hostiles are soon cut down from both sides in a matter of minutes. None of them attempt to surrender.

Isis crosses the hallway and meets up with the light infantry soldier leading the reinforcements. “Good work soldier,” Isis says. “I want this floor completely secured. Mix up your soldiers and the guards to maximize our effectiveness. The Borukin royalty is your number one concern. Do you understand?”

“Yes Ma'am.” The soldier moves off.

Isis puts on an injured soldier's helmet, synchronizes it with her wrist computer, and programs it to mark Erohsians with elevated Aether levels as hostiles. She accesses the building’s security system and scans for other alarms and notifications. Two pop up. One alarm shows a breach in the door to the roof and another shows a fire alarm in Capping and Extraction. She pulls up the video feed of the room and sees a frozen picture of light-infantry soldiers being consumed by a bright flash in the middle. An error message runs across the bottom. She switches the view to the hallway outside Capping and Extraction and sees a mangled door covered in ice with the sprinklers causing pools of water to build. A few soaked Erohsians guards are just starting to pick themselves up. What's going on here?