Shadow of the throne

Chapter Twenty-Two Lion's Roar

Julia stepped into Poseidon's lab, the buzz of monitors filled the air along with the stench of chemicals. Falker walked over once she noticed Julia standing awkwardly at the labs edge, dodging lab Tec's rushing between them. "Welcome Ravensong, Poseidon is in his private office".

Julia walked along the edge of the lab, Falker walking in step behind her. The large lab was an entire four stories of the Chariot, three balconies overlooked a massive central laboratory with all manner of experiments going on. A massive bang as some contraption backfired caught her attention, inside of a plume of smoke was Tucan, can gave her a cheerful wave before slapping the head an unfortunate attendant. Even on the move Poseidon's curiosity and drive, most of the projects being worked on were Poseidon's designs. Falker step in front of her as they approached a room at the far end of the deck, sequestered away in a corner and cut off by darkened glass. Falker tapped on the glass and the opened the door wide allowing Julia to walk past her into the office.

Inside Poseidon sat at a desk, lit by a half dozen monitor's all with schematics and date. Julia took a seat and waited for Falker to close the door behind her, shutting out the noise outside. "Have you been able to go through the data Kira provided us?"

Poseidon tossed a data pad over to her and spoke as Julia picked it up and scrolled through it. "This is a brief idea of the sort of data I recovered, from what I can tell it's seems to be a collection of notes from a dozen different labs, some of their notes are still encrypted, Artie is breaking it now, but it's slow going".

Julia put the data pad on the desk, most of what it contained was gibberish to her. "Anything we can use?"

Poseidon nodded "They have had some interesting thoughts on the curse, some I hadn't quite considered. But then they didn't have the qualms I do. But there are some insights there".

Julia stood, taking the pad from the table and handing it to him. "Then you have a lot of work ahead to you, I'll leave you to it but before I go I need you to talk to your brother".

Poseidon looked up, an eyebrow raised but didn't seem surprised. "Oh, what's he done now?"

Julia stepped behind the chair, her hands resting on the head rest. "He's been quite outspoken against this alliance of ours, its uneasy as it is".

Poseidon nodded. "I'll tell him to quieten down Ravensong" She nodded and patted the chair before turning and flooding the room with light before leaving.

❖

Hugues De'Payens had gone to the frontlines as soon as the Templars had landed. The gleaming battle plate of the Templars sent ripples through the alliance forces, but not as much as the reveal of their golden eyes. There had been some tension between them and the Outremerian troops, with jeers about traitors and heretics. They had soon been forced to keep the two groups separated. De'Payens's sighed slightly he hadn't been expecting a warm reception but people he had known from years had turned against them, even though Midgard had come to their aid. But then Julia's troops hadn't been lying to them all this time, so he guessed it was only fair. "In position".

Strike team Aries had been moving through the halls below him, using slickened weapons to take out anyone they came across. Unfortunately, his Templars weren't outfitted for this sort of combat, but he would be damned if the Templars had to sit out the fun. So, they did their part. But Hades had asked him to do a favour so now he was sat up here in the rain, streams rolling off his white armour in streams. "Ok Hugues knock on the door".

De'Payens stood slowly, rain water cascading off him as he hefted the massive hammer from his shoulder. With a grunt, he drove the hammer's head down on to the roof. The cement broke beneath the massive weight of the hammer. The teeth of the snarling lion ripping through the stone as he tore it free. He slammed it back down, dust and broken stone sailing into the air around him as crack radiated out from around him. With a third massive thud and a roar the roof gave way and, falling apart in a shower into the room below. One unlucky Outremerian trooper was caught beneath him, his screams and the sound of his bones was lost among the crescendo of collapsing stone. The other men and women inside were slow to respond, all of them had their weapons aimed at a door at the far end of the rom and De'Payens had fallen through behind them. With a growl, he brought the hammer down on the spine of the man in front of him, his body bending around the lion in a sickening way.