What Happened?

August 13, 2152

A man in a spacesuit walked down the lift from a bus-sized spacecraft onto a barren land of dust. "Command, this is Agent Seven. Checking connection. Do you read me?" the man said.

"This is Command, Agent Seven," a voice on the other side chirped, "Though your signal is a little fuzzy. Could you bump it up a little?" The man clicked a few holographic buttons hovering over his watch.

The man responded, "Is that any better?"

"That's better. Do you see any signs of attack?" the voice asked.

"I don't see any signs of damage or attack from the drop-off location," the man quickly replied, "Heading to the habitat unit now. Joining me are Agents Eight and Two. Turning on body camera." Two more people, a woman and a man walked down the lift and joined the first man. Through design or intention, all three individuals looked similar in the sleek, white, reflective spacesuits. The spacesuits may have looked modern, albeit tacky with a large number on the back, but the weapons and gear they carried looked old fashioned. Agent Two was the only woman in the group and looked to be carrying two satchels, one on each side of her hips, and a large halberd on her back. Her fellow late joiner, Agent Eight, had a large bag on his back and two short swords on his waist. Finally, Agent Seven stood in front of the pair with a longsword on his side and a shield on his back. Like most modern weaponry, it was made of alloy of tungsten, iridium, and germanium called orichalcum by the general public. This combination of elements was the hardest and most durable alloy humanity had created and crossed the stars with before magik was widely known. When magik was revealed, humanity struck gold and found this combination also best conducted magik as well.

"Agent Two. Agent Eight," Agent Seven called into his headpiece, "Comm check. Can you hear me?" Both of them replied affirmatively back as everyone drew out their weapons. A hundred yards from the ship was a massive dome of glass and metal containing the artificial environment for the outpost established on Proxima Centauri B. The trio walked cautiously across the dusty terrain towards the dome. The terrain was void of disruptions, meaning either no one had been here recently, or they had covered their tracks. Once they arrived at the entrance to the dome, they had a better view of the inside.

"What happened here?" Agent Eight stuttered. He had good reason to muddy his words since the inside looked like a scene from a horror movie. The glass door had been cut out and was lying on the ground outside the dome while the guard, or rather the pieces of the guard, was strewn across the floor of the airlock chamber. Beyond the airlock, the trio saw unimaginable carnage with bodies scattered across the lawn of the habitat and blood smeared on the glass.

"Be on your guard," Agent Seven warned, "This mission has changed from recon to recovery." The others nodded and gripped their weapons tight as they moved slowly into the habitat unit. Inside the destruction was even worse than it looked from the outside; nearly all of the people looked to be cut up or ripped apart. "You two, secure the perimeter; I'm going to the command center to see if we can recover the black box," Agent Seven commanded.

Agents Two & Eight set off to make sure there were no more Mantoan while Agent Seven headed towards a large cylindrical building near the center of the base. As he walked along, the number of people he came across increased. He imagined that people had been running for shelter when the Mantoan showed up. Still, it was surprising there was less resistance than expected. Especially after the advent of magik, most people at this remote base would have been level four or higher, but the Mantoan seemed to cut through them like cattle. The agent wondered what they had seen that caused such fear.

When he arrived at the command center, he found the door in the same shape as before with the entryway. Corpses of scientists littered the ground, but Agent Seven was careful to respect the dead. Unlike outside, these bodies were most in one piece, yet everyone here had their hands near their throat, as if they had choked to death. Upon closer inspection, Agent Seven found puncture wounds on the necks of all the scientists. "What the hell happened here?" he wondered out loud. He made his way to a trapdoor under reception and found one last person in the server room clutching their neck. "Jask, is this server database online?" Agent Seven asked aloud.

"Voice Recognition accepted. Hello, Agent Seven," a little screen was being projected from the server tray, "How can I be of assistance?"

Agent Seven questioned, "Jask, can you initiate a system wide search and tell me the status of the habitat unit? I also need you to upload all camera footage to my personal storage of the last one hundred ninety-two hours."

"Error. Footage is corrupted," Jask replied, "Do you still want to download it? I have also completed a full diagnostics check on the base. See readout on screen."

"Strange that the videos were corrupted. Yes, please download the footage," Agent Seven remarked as he looked at the screen.

WARNING: The habitat unit is devoid of oxygen. Please wear full environmental suits with backup oxygen.

WARNING: The unit is no longer sealed, Please wear full environmental suits.

WARNING: Primary power is offline. Running servers on reserve power.

WARNING: Security service compromised. No threat detection available.

WARNING: RRS is currently offline. Please use alternative methods of communication.

Agent Seven was concerned after looking at the readout. Unfortunately, these reports listed the problems in reverse time order, meaning the communication and security systems were taken out first, then power, before the Mantoan finally invaded the habitat base. He shook his head as he said, "They locked the people in here before they slaughtered them. How awful." While looking at the timestamp from the warnings, Agent Seven realized the Mantoan had taken out the three systems simultaneously then cut open the unit in less than thirty minutes. "That's quick. I need to get this information to Command. Command, do you read me?" Agent Seven called into his headset.

"Agent Seven, please move to," the voice broke through the static, "We're losing." He hustled up out of the server room and outside.

He yelled, "Command, do you read me?"

"Agent Seven, your signal is still weak," the voice crackled, "Please move to another location."

"Agent Two & Eight, report in. We need to return to the ship to reach Command," Agent 7 barked.

Agent Two replied, "Affirmative. We'll make our way to the ship immediately."

"Double-time that order," Agent Seven instructed, "I've got a bad feeling about things here." He started running to the ship, worried that they were in danger of an ambush. Agents Two & Eight caught up to Agent Seven just as he was exiting the habitat unit.

"Sir, what's the situation? What happened here?" Agent Eight asked.

"We need to leave," Agent Seven expressed, "I don't know if you two tried contacting Command, but when I did, they said my communication was breaking up. When I looked at the history of the attack, the Mantoan started by taking out communication. What did you all find?"

Agent Two responded, "More of the same, at first. As we got further in, we came across a plethora of people that were clutching their throats. They also appeared to have a puncture wound on the side of their necks."

"I found the same thing when I got inside the building," Agent Seven explained, "That's my other reason for the hastiness. I don't think we saw all the Mantoan when we fought them last." The trio ran across wasteland and got the ship going right away. Agent Seven ordered, "Agent Two, get this ship off the ground and headed home immediately. Agent Eight, I have the black box footage, but Jask said it had been corrupted. Start working on getting it cleaned up right away. I'm going to try to hail Command.''

"Yessir!" the two agents affirmed. Agent Seven walked to an elevated chain in the center of the ship. Before calling, he thoroughly checked the scanners, both short and long range, to make sure there was no sign of intelligent life on the radar but found no signatures.

He tapped a button, and a holographic screen appeared before him. Then he removed his helmet since the cabin had been pressurized and filled with oxygen. "Jask, patch me into Command. After you do, I'm leaving watching the scanners up to you. Thank you," Agent Seven told the AI system. A phone icon started vibrating on the screen but was quickly replaced by Supreme Commander Shepherd.

The commander leaned forward, "Agent Seven. It's good to hear from you. We got a little worried when your comms got squirrelly. What did you find there?"

"Sir, it was a bleak scene. First and foremost, there were no survivors. We are currently recovering video footage, but there are two major situations we uncovered," Agent Seven detailed, "One, the Mantoan possess some sort of device that simultaneously knocks out the RRS, our defense system, and our power network. Whether they developed this technology after the war or always had this is unclear. And that thought is further complicated by the second situation. We have reason to believe there are more Mantoan variants than we faced in the first war."

"That is a serious charge, Agent. What evidence do you have to support that conclusion?" Shepherd asked as he leaned back in his chair.

"I looked through the registry of people here at the base and found no one below a level two with the average power level at five. Yet the way the bodies were laying, they looked to be running from something immensely powerful," Agent Seven continued, "Additionally, all three of us observed victims that died from asphyxiation. These corpses also had a puncture mark on their necks." Shepherd leaned back more in his chair and brought his hands together in front.

Shepherd slowly spoke, "Is there any other information to report?"

"Just one observation since returning to the ship, sir. Our comms worked better the farther we got from the Command Center. I think the device they used to take out our systems had a lingering effect since they recovered once we left the area," Agent Seven responded.

"Thank you for the initial report, Agent," Shepherd finished, "I look forward to a full report when you return." Then the screen went blank, and Agent Seven breathed a large sigh of relief. He stood up from his seat and walked over to Agent Eight who was still busy cleaning up the camera footage.

Agent Seven tapped Agent Eight on the shoulder, "How's the scrubbing coming?"

"Very slow, sir," Agent Eight apologized, "All I've completed so far is the first few minutes, but you're welcome to review it. Whatever they used to scramble the systems did a real number on the storage system as well. If I had to take a guess, they used concentrated dark matter. It's the only thing that still affects our equipment to this degree." Agent Seven nodded and moved over to the side to pull up another screen with the recovered footage.

The first image on the screen was of the door falling in after being cut out. A pair of Mantoan were the first to walk through, covered in blood up their arms. Several soldiers ran to the entrance but stopped as a different sort of creature came through the doorway. It had the torso of a human attached to a thorax type body, like a centaur except the horse part was spideresque. The creature walked on four spider legs but had four arms as well, though more humanoid in nature with hands, and stood nearly nine feet tall. On its head, two pairs of insect eyes, one on top of the other, stared ominously down at the soldiers. Then one of the soldiers charged in with a sword covered in flames and swung at the spiderman.

"Fool," the spider hissed as he caught the blade with his right two hands. Then a horrifying sight occurred as the flames looked like it was getting sucked into the palms of the spider. The creature created two balls of dark swirling energy in the palm of its two left hands, and the soldier who had attacked dropped to one knee. A moment later, the balls ejected from its palms and toward two other soldiers. They tried to block the energy with magik-enhanced weapons, yet when the ball connected, it absorbed the magik, destroyed the weapon, and crashed into the soldiers. At first, the ball just stuck in their bodies while the troops stood there in place and spasming. A few moments later, a horrible screeching sound came from the people as they were spaghettified; finally, the balls disappeared as the last traces of the fighters vanished. Pure horror gripped the average scientist as they saw magik and weapons alike fail before their very eyes.

The spiderman made a terrible buzzing noise, and what followed could only be described as a horde of insectoid creature poured through the demolished doorway. Then the video stopped. Agent Seven asked, "Is that all we have so far?"

"Yessir," Agent Eight responded, "Still, to see that they were holding back this much when we first engaged them. What was that spider creature?"

"The spider worries me, but from a military perspective, I would guess this was a higher-ranking creature while still belonging to the same society as the Mantoan," Agent Seven contended, "Which means we won't see a lot of them in the field. What worries me more, as long as my first assumption is correct, is that we didn't see the creature that inflicted those wounds on the people's necks. It also still reveals a deeper problem: we still don't know where their home planet is. Keep me up to date on your progress."

 ~~~

After running and meditating, Emory, Innes, Gwen, and Sam went to the cafeteria for brunch. They had only shaved a minute off their time, but they were still making progress. While at the table, Emory asked, "Gwen, what are you doing this afternoon?"

"I planned on going back to the dorms and relaxing," Gwen answered quickly.

"Oh. Well, I know you said you didn't know anyone here," Emory began, "And I was going to go to the library and wondered if you wanted to come with me."

Gwen shrugged, "Sure. It sounds at least slightly better than staying in my room." Sam glanced at Emory, trying to figure out what kind of plan she was cooking up.

"Perhaps she's trying to decide if Gwen is bad or not," Sam thought, "Should I volunteer to go too, or will that seem like we're plotting?" Almost as if Emory was reading her mind, she looked up to see her slightly shaking her head as she stared back at Sam.

When everyone was finished, Emory and Gwen headed off to the library. Emory did want to find a book on fighting the Mantoan; after all, if there was a sphere that did particularly well against them, she would choose to learn that one as her second. But her true reason for going to the library was to talk to Gwen alone and put to bed all those wild rumors Sam was spouting. Once they reached the library, Emory swiftly found several books about fighting the Mantoan and found a secluded area to sit with Gwen.

As they sat down, Gwen questioned, "Why did you get all these books about fighting?"

"I'm a person who plans ahead, so I want to pick a second sphere that will better suit me to dealing with the Mantoan," Emory explained, "Have you thought about a second sphere yet?"

"I'm torn between a few of the Primal spheres. That's what pairs well with my sphere," Gwen commented.

"What is your sphere anyway?" Emory casually asked, "I went through several books here and couldn't find any descriptions that quite fit it."

Gwen leaned in and looked around before she whispered, "I use the Blood sphere, but you must have already guessed that, Lady Aurelias."

"Lady Aurelias? Who's that? I don't know that name. Ha ha," Emory panicked.

"Relax, I'm not a snitch," Gwen calmly said, "I noticed the Arcane sphere the day we sparred. It's the only sphere that can counter the Blood sphere. What I want to know is why you're not flaunting it? I mean, you have the best sphere."

Emory sighed, "In case you haven't noticed, my last name isn't Aurelias or Black. That means people will start asking questions and I don't even have the answers myself."

"Oh crap, I thought you just used a fake last name like me," Gwen conceded, "But if your name isn't Aurelias or Black, how do you know the Arcane sphere?"

"I'm not certain, but I think my mother was Lady Black's sister. My parents left me a spellbook," Emory elaborated.

"I see, that makes sense," Gwen reconsidered, "I'm guessing you have a lot of questions about Witches and the Council then. You can ask me if you want."

Emory awkwardly laughed, "Actually, I just have a favor to ask. Can you not report me back to the Council? I don't want to leave my training here yet."

"Report you to the Council? Why would I do that?" Gwen chuckled. Emory explained all the information she had learned about the Council from Sam, including about the disappearance of Laby Black. When Gwen heard all this, she only laughed harder. She tried to compose herself before responding, "She has greatly exaggerated the pace of the Council's actions. Most importantly, the Council only meets four times a year according to the Earth calendar. Equally importantly though, I'm not supposed to be here. The truth is that I'm hiding from my family here. If I report you, I'll alert them to my location as well."

"That's a relief," Emory exhaled deeply, "I'm sorry you're on the run."

"It's okay. Let's make a deal: I won't turn you in and you won't turn me in. Deal?" Gwen offered as she extended her hand to Emory.

Emory shook Gwen's hand as she agreed, "Deal. I'm glad you're not at all like I was warned. So, why did you pick here to run away to?"

"I'm surprised you didn't ask why I ran away," Gwen observed, "Well, I came here because I always wanted to see the other planets and the trip to Mars is cheap."

"You think the tickets are cheap? It's a few thousand credits to get a ticket to Earth," Emory scoffed.

"That's the price of a ticket from here to Earth, something I was not expecting," Gwen grimaced, "The tickets off Earth to Mars are only a hundred credits. My original plan was to stay a few weeks, then return to Earth, but then I got stranded here when I found out how much the trip back was."

Emory asked, "Do you think they've sent someone to look for you?"

"Without a doubt, if they haven't sent someone yet, they will soon. I imagine they're trying to find me on Earth first. Though at this point, I imagine they would let me finish school. At least I hope they will," Gwen nodded.

"Will they let you live your life?" Emory slowly questioned, "Or will you have to go back with them? I mean, could you go explore the universe or are you stuck with your clan on Earth?"

Gwen frowned, "If I were to guess, they would force me to return. I'm next in line for our family's council seat, and even though my father's health is good, my family generally doesn't let the next-in-line just galivant across the known universe. What about you? What do you want to do after school?"

"I want to travel, you know explore," Emory explained, "I've spent my whole life in a lab, so now I just want to get strong and go somewhere wild. Of course, I'll have to make it through this war first." The two girls continued to chat about their hopes and dreams for awhile before they finally decided to leave the library. In total, they had spent three hours in the library.

When Emory made it back to the dorm room, Tethys and Tana were gone, but Sam sat on her bed waiting for Emory's return. She immediately jumped off and rushed toward Emory as the door closed. She started quickly, "Well, what did you find out? Is she a spy? Is she plotting against you?"

"Woah, just chill," Emory cut her off, "Take a seat and I'll tell you everything." The two sat on Emory's bed as she explained everything to Sam who let out a sigh of relief from the news. Sam felt a little guilty for speaking poorly of Gwen up to that point and decided to start treating her more fairly. The rest of the afternoon went smoothly now that the apparent problem was fixed. Dinner was quick, and the group all decided to head to bed early for the long week ahead of them.

After drifting off to sleep, Tethys felt her phone vibrating, so she woke up and snuck off to the bathroom. A deep male voice spoke on the other side of the phone, "Agent 100, are you alone?"

"I am alone," Tethys groggily replied, "What's the situation?"

"The Commission has decided to change course based on new information. You have been given a new mission. Apprehend the student named Emory Reiss and bring her to the safehouse this Friday at 2000 hours," the man commanded.

"Why the sudden change?" Tethys questioned, "I mean, bringing in an outsider to the safehouse."

The man briefly paused, "Are you questioning the Commission and their wisdom?"

"No. Not at all," Tethys quickly replied as she instantly realized the mistake she had made.

"Good, Agent 100," the man sinisterly chucked, "Remember, 2000 hours on Friday." The dial tone buzzed a moment later. Tethys sighed and hopped out of the shower but tripped and dropped her phone. Just then, the door swung open, and Sam stepped in.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Sam laughed awkwardly, "I didn't check the light under the door. Why didn't you lock the door?"

Tethys stuttered, "Silly me. I was just in such a rush. Well, goodnight." She brushed passed Sam and started to jump in bed when the bathroom door opened again.

"I think you dropped your phone. This was behind the door," Sam tiredly called as she walked out and tossed Tethys her phone.

Tethys giggled, "Whoops. Thanks again." She quickly pulled her blankets over her head; Sam shrugged her shoulders and went back to the bathroom.

"The shower door is open; that's weird," Sam thought. But she quickly dropped her questions as she returned to her bed and drifted to sleep.