The Fractured Empire: A Tale of Downfall

Chapter 40

"Hey, I think I found something!"

And about goddamn time too... "What did you find, Boreas?"

"Another destroyed building, but the origin of our mystery broadcasts appear to be located somewhere within it."

I grunted in surprise. "Good work. I'll be over at your location in a few minutes."

After we spent easily over two hours searching the rubble and debris-laden streets of the outpost I had landed us in, I was thankful to finally have something to check out.

Speaking of our mystery structure, not much of it appeared to remain other than a burnt out shell.

"Well, that's not relieving at all..." I breathed, raising my voice as I turned to address the rest of my crew, "I want Boreas and Alex to come with me. Everyone else will stay out here."

Knowing Alannah would protest this decision, I continued. "If we travel in a smaller group, we'll be better off. I know you don't like this, Ali, but look at the building before us. It's not structurally-sound, and I'd feel better if only a small detachment of our crew went in. Besides, Vik will be with us. Should something happen, he'll have better luck getting us out of harm's way."

"He is not wrong," he chimed in, manifesting beside me, "I will protect your husband."

She sighed. "You better...Alright, happy hunting–return to us safely."

"We will," I assured her, leaning forward to touch foreheads with my wife, "Keep the group together, love. We won't be long."

"Okay...we'll be here..."

Without hesitating any more than we already were, I led Boreas and Alex toward our destination.

"Why do you always loop me into these crazy ass adventures..." my son grumbled.

"You live and breathe chaos. Don't give me that bullshit," I slung back.

"Eh, you got me there. But still: one tends to get tired of all this crap."

"Preach to the choir, sister..." Boreas murmured.

"We're the crash test dummies, Boreas. We can take a hit," I explained.

"You and Alex can, but I'm still against being used as a dummy."

I sighed. Maybe this wasn't a good idea...

It didn't take us long to enter the devastated building: we had a clear entrance since the door was missing, and there didn't appear to be any rubble in the room we had just entered.

"Well, this is going better than expected," Boreas murmured, not looking up from his holo-computer as he continued moving forward, "Good news is our objective appears to be below us–I'm guessing the Darka'ash were smart enough to create basements for them to work in."

"My kind generally prefer to live in absolute darkness, so you are not mistaken," Vik explained, "As a result, we built underground rooms in our complexes."

"Well, that makes sense. I mean, I remember that one building we explored a long time ago–the one that was bombed out," Boreas replied.

"Ah, right. I think I know what you're talking about," I murmured, only to refocus on the topic at hand, "Lead the way, Boreas. Here's hoping we'll find a route that isn't blocked by rubble."

"Yeah...let's hope..."

Without further ado, we continued to explore our decrepit surroundings. After we left...whatever room we had walked into, we started seeing which ways were clear for us to go down. While most of the hallways Boreas found were caved in, he still managed to scope out a route, hap-hazardous as it may have been.