(edited by AVM.5746)
River of Memories-Ch3: Needle in a Bomb Sack
At first, the passage way was lined with rock, typically of one would expect of a mine. But as she continued further, eventually the rock lining became smoother and smoother…. Until the whole passage way was now a metal-lined hallway. There were even small magic-powered lights dotting the ceiling every few yards.
It was also then she noticed the the whole hallway had a slight steep downward. After what seemed like 10 minutes of walking, Lilyia realized that Tom’s description of the facility being about 1 kilometer underground wasn’t exaggerated….
“This place is DEEP!” Lilyia exclaimed, finally breaking the silence of the long march. “How in the Pale Tree did Scarlet even make this place, especially under the Priory?”
“Probably the same way she had an endless supply of Clockwork troops and Alliance soldiers on hand, Curry.” The Lieutenant responded behind her. “You should’ve seen her invasions, there seemed to be no end to her troops as they came out of those portals she used. It made you wonder where she got the resources for them…”
“So I read, sir..” Lilyia responded.
It was then that Lilyia realized something was off about the assignment and figured this was a good time to ask since the Lieutenant was in a ‘docile’ mood…
“Uh, permission to ask a question, sir?”
“Granted. What is it?”
“Why exactly are ‘WE’ destroying the facility? Wouldn’t the Priory be more suited? I mean they’re close by and I’m sure they have at least one thing that blows up in that headquarters of theirs…”
The Charr behind her gave a snarled laugh, sounding impressed. “Smart question, Curry. Alright, I’ll answer it… Would you believe they actually DON’T want this facility destroyed?”
“W-What?! They don’t?”
“Of course they don’t, they’re motto is: ‘Knowledge is power.’ They wanted to see if they could use whatever this facility was holding to fight against the dragons.”
Lilyia thought for a moment. “Well… That is a good argument. The benefits…”
“BUT-,” The officer interrupted her. “A few more factors came after initially finding this place. Keep in mind, this facility has been operating for the last 10 years automatically… and it’s been ‘feeding’ something.”
“F-F-Feeding?!” Lilyia immediately felt uncomfortable in what exactly she was marching toward to. “What do you mean feeding, sir!??”
“You’ll see what I mean when we get there.” The officer sneered. “The other thing is, they were actually over-ruled by the other two orders, as well as Marshall Trahearne. The others realized that despite it being 10 years, they were actually lucky that whatever Scarlet was ‘growing’ in this facility hadn’t come out already. Said it reminded them of some toxic hybrid.. thing,… that grew out of a big plant in Kessex Hills in the past or some crap like that. So they figured it was safer to destroy it now and salvage the pieces.”
“…But, still.” Lilyia began. “If that’s the case, then why doesn’t the Priory—?”
“Just because they said no to the Priory doesn’t mean the Priory was willing to help blow it up, Curry.” The Lieutenant answered sternly. “ The headmaster pretty much said, ‘Well if you wanna blow it up. Then go right ahead, but you’re not gonna get any help from us.’”
“So then… Why didn’t the Vigil or the Order of Whispers do it?”
“Two reaso— Well, okay, maybe three reasons. One: Only the Lionguard has enough military grade explosives on hand at the moment to do it. Most of theirs were used for operations in Orr and Frostforge. Two: Blowing up a facility this size didn’t really need a lot of manpower, so they figured they could trust the job to us and continue concentrate their fight with the dragons… And the third reason: Maybe to give us payback.”
Lilyia raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, payback?”
The eyes of the Lieutenant t eyes became dark and cold. “You weren’t here 10 years ago, right Curry?”
“Uh…” Lilyia looked down. “Yeah… I came out of the pod 5 years ago, I’ve only read and heard accounts…”
“Well, let me give you some more personal accounts.” The Charr began. “That Sylvari didn’t just destroy Lions Arch Arch ten years ago. She didn’t just burn buildings and businesses and toppled things over. She killed women and children, families, friends, homes that were there since the city’s founding along with generations that would have followed. …And she did it all WITH A SMILE ON HER FACE!!”
Lilyia’s face looked stunned. She didn’t know what to say…
“IF she thinks she’s leaving some legacy here, while she went and murdered so many others that day, she has another thing coming to her. We’re gonna erase EVERYTHING she left here.” The Charr then seemed to laugh at herself. “Heh.. If I could look at her ghost, I wish I could see the expression on her face as we burn this kitten to the ground.”
Lilyia was silent. It was the first time she saw the actual anger of a citizen from Lions Arch. Of what was lost so much that day…
“I-I guess that makes sense, Lieutenant. Sorry, I asked.”
“Just keep walking, private.”
After a moment of silence. Lilyia couldn’t help but ask one more question.
“Uh, Lieutenant, permission to ask one more question? …A personal one?”
The Charr rolled his eyes annoyingly. “Again, granted. What is it?”
“Did YOU lose anyone that day?”
For a moment, he looked kind of stunned. Then he answered darkly, gazing away. “A human friend. We used to play around the docks. She survived the initial attack, but she inhaled too much of the miasma before we got out of the city. I had to watch her die slowly.”
“I’m… I’m sorry, Sir.”
He sighed. “We made a promise as kids that were going to be traders and sail the seas together. And Scarlet took that from me… From US. ”
“Uh.. Y-you could still be that trader, sir.”
The lieutenant seemed to sneer at her, as if that was a dumb response. “You’re still young Curry, so let me tell you something: When someone close to you dies, some part of you does as well. For your sake, I hope that never happens.”
At that point, Lilyia didn’t know how to respond. Instead of saying anything back, she simply kept her back to the officer and kept walking forward…
===
After what seemed like a few more minutes of walking she then noticed an opening ahead, flowing with a brilliant white light. The change of brightness made her eyes squint as she approached the entrance.
When she finally entered it, and let her eyes adjust, Lilyia’s eyes widened as she looked at the area before her.
The ‘Facility’ was an enormous dome-shaped cavern. It was so large it could house Vigil’s Keep! Along the ground, enormous glowing transparent pipes, their size mimicking the underground sewer channels under Lion’s Arch, snaked from the outer walls to a large round opening in the center. Glowing white light seemed to pulsate from them, leading from the walls toward the opening in the ground.
Despite the enormous weight on her back, she couldn’t help but feel the explosives she hauled down here wouldn’t be enough to blow everything up.
“This place is…! Is..! Do we even have enough explosives for this?!” Lilyia exclaimed.
The officer didn’t answer, instead shouted out, “Form up! Curry, bring that pack down and open it up!”
Lilyia did what she was told, and laid the pack down. Finally relieved of the weight, she slouched and held her knees to catch her breath for a moment.
After a moment to regain herself, she undid the strings on the pack and opened it up. Inside the enormous pack were smaller individual satchels also closed by strings. From the irregular shape each satchel took, it appeared each explosive inside was about the shape and size of a thick saucer.
Lilyia then dragged the enormous, opened sack next to the lieutenant then took her place among the ranks, next to Tom who handed her back her bow and arrows. They all took a disciplined stance of attention, with their hands and arms to their side and their chins held up.
“Alright,” The Lieutenant began. “This probably doesn’t have to be said, but I’m gonna say it anyway since there are dumb dolyaks among you. Whatever you do, do NOT touch the liquid within these pipes. The effects are extremely debilitating.”
All the troops immediately exchanged faces.
“What do you mean debilitating, sir?” A random troop asked in the back.
“Hard to explain, really.” The lieutenant said with his arms crossed. “So I’ll provide you an example: When a priory scholar got exposed from a spray of this stuff, he immediately went wild like an undead berserker before dying of a seizure.”
Everyone was silent for a moment, then there were a few:
“A-are you serous?”
“Ya kidding?”
“No, way.”
“Believe it, maggots.” The Lieutenant said sternly. “Whatever this stuff is, it effects the brain if enough of it gets into your body. So treat this stuff like poison.”
Lilyia was the first to speak after this.. “Aaaaand we’re going to be walking over this stuff? As we lay explosives, sir?”
“Correct. Everyone, grab a satchel of explosives and spread out. I want this whole network of pipes covered within an hour…”
===
“This place is huge, Tom. Do you think we have enough explosives?”
Tom shrugged, as he kneeled down a charge and armed it. “Ought too. These explosives were co-designed by the Priory and Whspers. Despite their size, each one is strong enough to blow up a small house. On top of that, we’re in a pocketed-area, so the blasts from these charges will be extremely efficient. Even if we don’t destroy this place completely, the shockwaves from these blasts will most likely cause a cave-in and bury this place…”
“Makes sense.” Lilyia replied, activating one charge. “Speaking of which, you got any info on what ARE these pipes? And what’s that glow?” Lilyia asked as she gazed again at the enormous entanglement of pipes.
“I don’t know myself.” Tom replied, setting another charge down.. “But the Priory Scholars theorize these pipes are pumping some kind of refined energy from a nearby Leyline.”
“Leyline?” Lillyia took a moment to ponder at the term. “You mean the network of magical energy flowing under the ground”
“Ah, you heard about them?”
“I read them in a book somewhere.” She shrugged. “And what I heard from the Lieutenant, they’re feeding into something?”
“Yup. Something down there.” He pointed at the area where all the pipes converged, packed and blocked the massive round opening in the ground.
“I see.. So, uh… Has any one, ummm” She sounded a bit nervous. “Has anyone exactly seen what this stuff is feeding into?”
“That’s where all my info ends.” Tom said as he laid another charge down, and arming it. “If I had to guess, I don’t think anyone knows, or rather they can’t.”
“Huh? What do you mean?” She asked quizzically as reached into the pack without looking to grab another charge.
“Well, look over there.” He pointed at a large, metallic device in the corner of the area that looked like an oversized shower with a metal curtain.. “That there is some type of teleporter. And it’s the only one I’ve seen through out this whole facility. Obviously, wherever that teleporter would take you would most likely be the center of where this is going.”
“Uh, huh I get it…” Lilyia thought for a moment. “Hey wait, if it takes you to the center, then why—“
“Yeah, exactly.” Tom answered, as if reading her mind. “If that teleporter takes you to the center, then why are we all setting up the charges here? Better yet, why not go the center control and deactivate this place rather than blow it up? My guess is that either the teleporter isn’t working or restricts access to those using it.”
“So basically,” Lilyia said, filling in the gaps as she laid down her current charge. “If we can’t blow it or deactivate it directly we might at least ‘starve’ it, or better yet destroy it, with detonating the pipes filled with magic energy up here?”
“Yup. Hmm, you’re smarter than you look Lilyia.”
“And what’s THAT supposed to mean?” She looked at him annoyed, as she reached down to press arming button on the charge.
“Nothing. I just mean that—NO. WAIT. STOP…”
“Hey I ain’t stopping.” Lilyia replied with the same tone. “You tell me what you mean by—“
“NO! I MEAN DON’T PRESS THE—!“
“Huh?” Her finger felt the button before her body could react to her answer. And then there was a loud:
BEEP, BEEP!
Lilyia noticed Tom had the palest expression as he just seemed to stare at the explosive charge below her.
*W-WHAT? What Tom? What did I do!?” She rapidly bobbed her head up and down between the device at her feet and his face.
“Lilyia…”
“WHAT?”
“…That’s not a remote charge. That’s a proximity mine.”
Huh..?”
“…And you just armed it.”
Just then she realized that the charge she pulled out of the pack without looking was differently shaped and colored. Yet the arming trigger was in the same relative area.
“W-W-W-W-WHAT WAS A PROXIMITY MINE DOING IN THERE!?!”
“Uh… I’m guessing it got mixed it there by mistake. But never mind that! Why the heck did you pull it out in the first place?! Didn’t you notice?!?”
“I-I-I was busy talking with you! …But whatever, WHAT THE HECK DO WE DO?” Her voice sounded like she was at the point of panicking.
“Hold up… Lemme think for a moment. Just… Don’t move.”
“No crap, Tom!” She cried.
Sweat rolled profusely down Tom’s face as he studied the device.
“Okay…” Tom began, breathing nervously. “I’ve got an idea. Try not move.”
“What are you gonna-“
“Please be quiet for a sec, ” Tom urged her. “I just learned this a few days ago, so I need to focus.”
He then closed his eyes and murmered a word to himself.
Water
Then was then a ‘spark’ of blue energy that seems to cover his body. He then took a deep breath and out his mouth came a blue fog of cold air. As Lilyia witnessed, the fog flew over the mine at her feet, encasing it immediately with frost.
Lilyia’s eyes widened. “…Since when did you learn elementalist spells?”
Tom didn’t respond, but kept ‘blowing’ at the mine at her feet. A few moments later, the entire mine was encased with a thin layer of ice. After the moment, he stopped blowing and immediately gasped to breath.
“Y-you okay?”
“Yeah.. I’m good.” He answered between breath. “I’m just a beginner on that spell, so it took a lot out of me.”
“Ah-Okay… So uh.” She looked back down at the mine. “Is it safe to move now.?
“NO!” He yelled suddenly in a breath.
Lilyia looked at him wide-eyes. “What do you mean ‘NO’? Didn’t you disarm it?”
“Freezing it doesn’t disarm it. It just delays the chemical reaction of the explosion by a few seconds. That’ll at least gives us time to…” He took one final deep breath, “Jump away.”
Lilyia was wild-eyed. “J-JUMP AWAY!? What do you mean jump-away?” She was doing everything she could to stay frozen as she yelled. “No way we could jump out of the blast in a few seconds!”
“Well that’s all I could think of!” Tom yelled back in anguish. “I don’t see you thinking of anything helpful right now!!”
Lilyia swallowed hard. He was right. She had been barking at him this entire time, and this was her goof up. She closed her eyes and thought hard.
So they had a few seconds to get away, but even if they jumped as far away as they could, there would be no way to avoid the blast radius. Could they call for help? …No. Too risky. Anyone else could activate the motion detector before they could explain their situation. Could she use those few seconds to disarm it? …Probably not. Not only was it encased in ice, the button she pressed to arm it seemed locked-in, and she didn’t see anything else around it that looked like the disarming function.
Best thing they could do was to increase their distance from it within that few seconds….
But how would they do that?
If they couldn’t move themselves within the few seconds, maybe they could move the bomb—
“W-wait… I think I could…” She began.
“Yeah?” Tom looked at her stressed.
“I could uh… Kick it in the opposite direction, and in that moment we could jump away. You think that would work?”
Tom’s eyes widened. “Uh.. Y-yeah. That could work. But you’d need to kick it pretty hard, Lilyia. That thing has a blast radius of about 5 meters.”
Lilyia nodded gently. “Okay.. Okay,I got it.” She took a few deep breath and looked at Tom. “Ready?”
“Y-yeah, I guess.”
“Alright, on three.”
They both nodded.
“One. Two. Th—“
“WAIT!”
“-WAh!!?”
“Uh sorry. I need to ask something first. Is it gonna be ‘one-two-three-kick? Or are you gonna kick at exactly on ‘three’?” He suddenly asked.
Lilyia dropped her jaw and looked wide-eyed at him. “What does it matter, Tom!? Regardless, we jump right when I kick this crap away!!”
“Oh, yeah right, uh sorry.” He smiled nervously.
Lilyia exhaled hard in irritation. “Okay. Again. Get ready.”
“Okay, ready.”
Both of them took a slight stance.
“One… Two… Thr—“
“WAIT!”
“BY THE PALE— TOM!!! What now?!”
“Uh.. Can I say something first?”
Lilyia just stared at him with an open mouth. After a 5 second delay she finally asked, “What?”
“This, uh, might be the last time we talk so I’d like to say something to you before we might, you know.. Die?”
Her eyes went narrow as she gave him a face of disbelief. “Seriously…?”
“Well, can I?”
She rolled her eyes, and slouched a little as if her saying her body just couldn’t take any of this stress anymore.
“No…”
“Okay. I just wanna say—WAIT WHAT?!?”
Her face suddenly went fierce and her voice exploded. “This has been the worst day of my life, TOM! I lost my vacation, my breakfast, I had to walk half-way across Tyria with a hobo-sack of bombs on my back… and now I’m gonna be blown up in some psycho’s underground hideout! So the last thing I need… IS TO HEAR SOMETHING SAPPY FROM A GEEK BEFORE I DIE!!”
“Uhh—.”
“So screw this crap! ONETWOTHREE!”
Kick
And immediately both of them ran the opposite direction, flailing their arms in the air and screaming like little children as they ran for their lives.
(edited by AVM.5746)