Luca DR
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Edge of apocalypse 39
🕑 Added 2023-05-26 14:14:07 +0000 UTC39 – On the same page
“What is the HDF?” Asked Albert.
The clock ticked. There was, hidden in some part of everyone’s mind – be it more at the forefront or more hidden away depending on the person – this sense that they were wasting time here. Yet, they also knew that they could not rush to save Albert’s friend before having resolved all their issues, especially when their opponent was a psion capable of manipulating their minds and their emotions.
Instead, Samantha took a moment to reflect. Not about the question, which in itself was a strange question about something Albert was not supposed to know, but about the fact that he was strangely calm and collected after learning that his mother had been lying to him his whole life, and about something that was not among the most trivial of things. In the end, she decided not to press the issue, knowing full well that even though she might have dodged the bullet now, she would eventually have to face him and give him some sort of explanation.
“The HDF…” She began, trailing off as she tried to put it into words. “Not even I know the full extent of what it is. In fact, I know very little about it.”
Lloyd, who had been listening as if waiting for the moment to finally butt in, spoke. “If it’s the same as it was back in the day, they didn’t tell you jack shit. Did they?”
“No, and whenever I tried to ask for information, even in the name of national security, I got hit with clearance levels I didn’t even know existed.”
“Knew it.” Lloyd said.
“Mom.” Albert said. “Tell me everything you know. You grilled me about my side of things, it’s only right I know yours. And be quick, most of the night is gone already and we don’t even have a plan to save Marc.”
Samantha blinked at the unexpected forwardness. Or rather, it was expected of him but not of the context. He was mad, wasn’t he?
“Sure. Sorry, you’re right. I’ll tell you everything. HDF stands for Human Defense Force and it’s, well, it’s the organization that stands above the BSA I am the head of. That’s all I know. They have technology and magic items much more advanced than anything I have ever seen, and they are massive. I have only seen scraps of tech, and witnessed only the bare minimum of their structure, but I got the impression that they are huge.”
“…like a leviathan.” Albert said.
“Yes. I fear they might be interplanetary in scale, if not more. There are theories about other universes too, and some of them reference works classified by the HDF itself.”
Albert nodded. “What is Erebus?”
“You know about Erebus?”
“I have been there.”
Samantha gasped. “It’s a place? Shit.”
“Oh yeah. It’s the planet where the village of Elvenhome is located. The one with the valley and the wastelands all around.”
Samantha turned two shades paler than she was. “Project Erebus,” she began, stammering. “Was the first ever disclosed use of the Alignment Cutter. I was among the people who helped develop it.”
“I saw HDF ships, wreckage, on Erebus. What the fuck happened there?”
“Pilgrim invasion.” She said, “like it’s happening here on Earth right now, just there it was at a stage so late there was no other choice but to use it. To think… yeah. I think you saved us twice now, not once.”
“You were about to use it, weren’t you?” Albert asked.
“I knew it had consequences.” She said.
“Consequences, she says. That shit sterilized a planet.” Lloyd muttered.
“I had no idea.”
“How is that even possible? Everyone knows about Erebus… wait, shit—” Lloyd said, then stared in the distance. “PsyOps. He made you forget.”
“That little—”
“It’s okay. You didn’t use it in the end, right? Nothing bad happened, the system made sure of it.” Albert said.
“You seem to trust this system a lot.”
“No more than you trusted an organization you knew nothing about, like the HDF.” Albert replied with a shrug.
Samantha blinked.
“What is it supposed to do anyway?” Her son asked.
“It severs the Alignment, so that the Pilgrims cannot use the access they have to our reality to send their Eggs and then their spearhead forces. But apparently it also renders the whole planet uninhabitable in the process.”
After that, it was Albert’s time to question his mother about what she did at the Bureau. For a short moment it was like the roles were reversed, with her being interrogated after doing a misdeed, waiting for the talking to and for a punishment. In the end, though, no such punishment arrived and Albert only asked to be given some space to clear his thoughts, leaving her alone with her father. After he was back it would be time to finally reflect on what to do about their situation and how to deal with the rogue operatives at large.
“He’s mad at me, isn’t he?” She asked.
“If he is, which is almost certainly the case, then he ought to be even madder at me.” Lloyd said, laughing dryly.
“I had no other choice though? What was I supposed to do, tell him the truth when he was nine? Oh yeah by the way your mommy is a badass spy working for magic CIA.”
Her father laughed at her shenanigans. “Wow, you have emotions too? I could never tell.”
She glared at him.
“Little Sam, remember how mad you were when you found out about me, back in the day?”
“Oh yeah, like it was yesterday.”
He grinned. “But what was I supposed to do, come to you when you were nine and go yeah by the way your daddy—”
“I got the point.” She slumped. “I had no right to be mad, did I?”
“What are you on about?” Lloyd said, almost raising his voice. “You had every right to be mad! Just… no right to stay mad once you understood why I had to keep it secret. Which you didn’t, by the way.”
“I hope Albert also forgives me, eventually.”
***
[Quest: Peer at the Leviathan complete.]
The reward for the quest was a small spherical object with thin, bluish lines etched on its surface. It was, if anything, a welcome distraction from the veritable storm of conflicting thoughts that were sieging Albert’s prefrontal cortex, in addition to being a genuinely interesting item. It was called, the Quest recited, a prototype teleportation device and he could not wait to appraise it.
[Prototype Teleportation Device (PTD): a quest reward aimed at paving the way for the development of spatial magitechnology. This device can be linked to one location already present in your mental map, and will allow one other person to teleport to that location as if they were the ones using the skill. Single use only.]
Albert returned inside the diner to sit at the table, finding the two members of his family snacking on some potato chips and drinking beer. He questioned them about what in the name of all that was holy they were doing, but his grandpa raised a very good point that immediately deflated all his anger and restlessness: the atmosphere was very tense and they hadn’t had a family moment in months, on account of everyone having their little secrets to hide.
He felt criminal wanting to partake in the relaxing atmosphere while his friend was captive.
Truth be told, once he managed to clear his head a bit, he found that it was very pleasant to spend time with the two of them – the only family he had left – once there were no more secrets between them. But the moment was fleeting, for there was work to do, and his friend was still being held in a cell inside a maximum security prison for magically enhanced people in the middle of nowhere.
The consensus was to regroup at Lloyd’s house, a safe place since both Samantha and Albert confirmed that PsyOps did not scan their minds for it. Albert and grandpa went by teleportation, while Samantha was left to go there by car, Lloyd’s yellow sports car.
“It’s parked in the lot behind the diner. You can take it, but don’t scratch it.” Lloyd said.
“I drive better than you, dad.” Samantha said. “Well, see you there.”
The two men vanished, leaving Samantha behind. She blinked, nodded, shook her head and walked out of the diner with purpose. As soon as she left, the owners of the place reemerged from the back of the restaurant, ready to make any trace of the presence of the family disappear as per agreement. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Albert and Lloyd appeared without fanfare. The old man gave the heap of smoking scrap that once was the teleportation device back to Albert, who put it aside to study it better later. The quest hinted at it being useful if he wanted to develop some spatial enchanted items, so he made sure not to throw it away by mistake.
“This is how it feels, then. Can’t say I expected it to be so… mundane. One moment you are here, the next you are there.”
“It only felt like this to you grandpa. The item only had one destination saved in it. It’s different for me.”
Grandpa hummed. “’tis the thing with magic, the more you know how it functions the less magical it feels.”
“Speaking about knowing…” Albert said, eliciting a sigh from Lloyd as he threw himself on the sofa. “You knew, all this time.”
“Of course I knew! I trained her.”
Albert said nothing.
“What did you expect me to say, kid? It’s normal, you’ll get over it.”
“No lesson to be learned?”
The old man grinned. “None at all. You’ll see when you have kids.”
“Which means never.”
“Whatever. You youngsters always say that but then one day it’s like a switch is flipped.”
[New Quest: Leviathan Diversion I]
- Acquire 25 kilograms of pure elemental iron.
- Step 1/?? for the construction of the Time Severed Containment Field to house the Eggs.
- Reward: Skill autolearn: Earth Shard.
