Lost
Empire: Part One.
By
Brad
Marsh
Several
hours after Shadows of the Past.
Downtown
Boston: Federal Plaza.
The
man in the charcoal gray suit stepped out of the gateway and into the trash
littered control room. Striding through loose papers, trash, and other discarded
items the man exited the control room and walked down the short hallway to a
single set of stairs leading up into the darkness above. Without pausing or
drawing a weapon the man ascended into the darkness above. The absence of fear
without a weapon drawn would have struck most born into the Outlands as either
stupid or suicidal. But the man who exited the gateway had been born in another
time and place. A time before the bombs fell and the world came to a screeching
halt, and civilization had died. He was what many called a Freezie, someone who
had been cryogenically frozen, suspended between life and death. Most were
frozen because they were dying on some disease that medicine could not cure. So
they were frozen until a time came when there aliment could be treated. But
there were those would were frozen because the coming war had been foreseen in
some circles and those who were deemed too important or valuable to loose where
frozen. Some were rich men and women or society and others were government
officials like the Director of the FBI and a few chosen agents.
Only
this freezie had not thought when he had been frozen that he would wake up in a
world full of violence and madness that never seemed to end. Someone was always
trying to kill you for what you had or for what they thought you might have. His
pristine .40 caliber Smith and Wesson model 4010 was among one of the things he
owned that others would kill him for. It along with his suit was the only thing
that had made the trip through time with him.
Having awakened in a cryo unit in one of the rooms directly above the
gateway, the man was surprised to discover thirty or so fellow Freezies waking
up next to him. They were like him in many ways, they were all FBI agents or
they had been before the bombs had dropped. Once they had all dressed they had
discover that they were underneath the FBI offices in Downtown Boston. Several
days after they had come out of stasis he and another agent had stumbled across
the entrance to the stairway and found the gateway below.
He
and several other agents had made a jump to Arcadia Park after accessing the
buildings comps. Once there they
had made there way to an old medical complex. There he had hoped to find the key
to what was referred to as project Genesis. The records he had found with in the
complex had been vague and incomplete do to comp failures sometime after
Skydark. He had found references to cloning and Gene splicing. But he found a
reference to a man named Ryan Cawder far more interesting. According to the
records he had been guest with in the complex, but something happened and the
scientists that ran the complex had tried to kill him and his companions, but
they had turned the tables and leaving the head scientist dead, and the complex
severely damaged. Most of the security personnel survived with a few scientists.
The complex was abandon and the research moved elsewhere. Just as he and his men
were departing gunfire erupted outside the complex, and then abruptly stopped.
He and his men came across three armed individuals as they were entering the
complex through a window. He recognized them all from photos he had picked up
from local traders. For some food and a few bullets the traders had filled in
the history since Skydark and what information they could about the four figures
whose pictures had been circulating through out the Outlands. That history
included Ryan Cawder and his band that had become legends through out the
outlands and among the Outlanders whom lived there. He learned about the program
of unification and the nine Barons, he also learned about the current hero's who
were wanted for crimes against the Barons. Kane and Grant had been Magistrates,
local police. Brigid Baptiste had been an archivist, and Domi was an Outlander
born and breed in the Outlands. Having been rescued by Kane and Grant she had
fled slavery in Cobaltville, along with Brigid Baptiste who had avoided
execution. Now they fought the Barons, along with anyone who else who got in
their way and it seemed as it they were winning at the moment. But he had other
things to worry about at the moment, there were few of them and Kane had killed
six of his men, leaving him to jump back to Boston alone. Not to mention the
fact that he had not found out where project Genesis had been moved. He had a
few ideas but it was going to take time to investigate those possible locations,
and he wasn’t sure if he was going to have time to do that. It was only a
matter of time before his path would cross with Kane’s once more. From what he
had heard from the traders it was fatal to cross Kane. But there was an
exception to every rule. He hoped he was going to be that exception. But only
time would tell.
Cerberus
Redoubt: Three months later.
Kane
stood outside in the growing darkness, blowing plumes of cigar smoke into the
air. He was dressed in a Montana State College Sweatshirt, blue jeans and a pair
of gray hiking boots, which he had taken from the redoubt stores. He had been
out hiking with Brigid that afternoon, and had not bothered to change out of his
outdoor clothes upon their return. He was comfortable which was something that
happen all that often so he figured he would enjoy it while he could.
He
had no doubt that some pressing matter would come up that needed attention and
he along with Grant, Brigid and Domi would be off to deal with it. They had
enjoyed three full days of down time so he figured they were about do for a
major crisis. The familiar
comfortable weight of his loaded Sin Eater rested on his wrist. A navy combat
knife he had gotten from the armory was sheathed on his right hip.
It
had been over three months since their strange encounter with a man claiming to
be a Freezie FBI agent. Though they had only heard rumors of men in business
suits roaming the Outlands asking questions about Project Genesis and about
Kane, Grant, Brigid and Domi. There had been no contact between those in
Cerberus and the FBI Freezie. What made Kane nervous though, and he knew Grant
was just as nervous, was the fact that the Barons had done nothing to find out
more about those asking questions. The rumors placed these suited wearing men
from the Western Isles to the Florida Keys to Hawaii. Yet there had been nothing
from the Barons. There had been no rumors of a confrontation between Ville Mags
and FBI freezie’s followers.
A
few months before Lakesh had set up a comp that could intercept and listen to
ville communications and of all the communications they had intercepted there
was no mention of the Business suit wearing men, even in passing between
operators. The rumors were every where there was no possible way the Barons
would not have heard about those asking questions, it was even more unsettling
that the operators seemed to know nothing about the FBI Freezie. So through the
last three months Lakesh had kept an eye and ear on things going on out in the
Outlands. The rumors came in on almost a daily basis. Different packmen,
traders, and assorted travelers stopped at the Lakota camp at the base of the
mountain were they traded stories with the Lakota who lived in the camp. Kane
struck a deal with the Lakota, Food and Ammunition, in exchange for obtaining
this information and bringing the information to them. The deal had held well so
far, Kane hoped his making the deal with the Lakota didn’t come around and
bite him in the ass. With a start he realized he’d been so deep in thought
that he had drifted out of it for a while, when he look over Brigid was standing
a few feet away to his right. He hadn’t even heard her approach. She glanced
at him, but remained silent. “ What is it? “ he asked
“
We got word that there’s been an attack on Sharpeville Mags near downtown
Boston. All but one Mag in the squad was killed or captured. He brought back
word of the attack. He says it was guys in Predark business suits that did it.
They had more weapons than anyone had seen in a long time. It sounds like their
armory is at least twice as well stock as ours is.”
“
They took out fifteen Mags. Was there word on how many were taken hostage? “
“
Four confirmed. But the Mag who made it back wasn’t sure if there were more
survivors. Eight confirmed dead. But I haven’t told you the weirdest thing
yet. The survivor claims this was done by two guys with handguns.“
“
Hand blasters against Sin Eaters and Copperheads. I don’t buy it. Two guy
against a squad of Mags. “
“
He also says they hit these two guys in Suits with automatic fire from at least
six Copperheads, scoring multiple hits and all it did was cause the two shooters
to stager some. It was like they were wearing body armor he said, only they
scored at least three hits on one guy's head. “
“
That can’t be right. You’re sure that’s what this Mag said? “
“
Yeah. Lakesh had Brye recorded the whole conversation. You can listen to it
little on.“
“
Who was Sharpe talking to? “
“
Cobaltville. Baron Cobalt himself spoke with Baron Sharpe. It seems they were
ignoring the rumors we were hearing because they didn’t believe any of it.
Seems they thought we where making it up and paying Pack men and traders to
spread the word.”
“Cobalt
would come up with something like that. In his warped fuckin’ mind were out to
get him like we did Baron Ragnar. Only he doesn’t know about Tara.“
“
You and Grant showing up in Minnesota and then Ragnarville didn’t help that
situation any though. Even though we had no choice at the time. Since Lakesh
doesn’t run things around her anymore it’s up to us whether or not we
investigate.“
“
I’ll talk to Grant. If there are freezies out there that can take out fifteen
Mags without a scratch then I think we should look into it. “
“
You thinking allies for us against the Barons? “
“
No. I’m thinking Survival. If fifteen Mags couldn’t two of them out them the
four us have no chance in hell of taking out two and who knows how many this
Freezie FBI guy has at his finger tips. “
“
What I don’t understand is you killed three of the guys with this freezie back
in Maine. Domi killed three more, but fifteen Mags could handle two of them. You
shot your three in the head. It doesn’t make sense to me. They died why not
the two who faced off against Sharpe’s Mags?“
“
I don’t know but where going to find out. “ Kane replied “ How many
gateways are in Boston?”
“
There are two indexed gateways. One is in Government Center in the North End of
the city. The other is in the basement of the prudential building. Near downtown
and the public library Building. “
“
Was there an FBI building near either of those Gateways? I’m willing to bet
there’s either an unindexed Gateway in or under the FBI building which
wouldn’t be a surprise, or one of these indexed Gateways isn’t far from
where this Freezie FBI man is hold up. “
“
There was FBI offices in Federal Plaza before Skydark. But Boston was hit pretty
hard when the bombs fell. It’s a lot like New York City and we both know what
that city looked like when we paid Manhattan a visit. The Gateway near the
Library is the closest. We’ll have to see if it’s working. Otherwise it’ll
be a long work from the North End to downtown.“
“
Either way don’t you agree we should check this whole thing out? “
“
Yeah I agree I’m just warning you that it might to tough getting to Federal
Plaza. That’s all.”
“
Ok. Then lets go in an listen to this communication between Sharpe and Cobalt,
not to mention find out if any of the gateways in Boston are online.” Kane
replied as he headed towards the entrance to the redoubt Brigid sliding up next
to him and matching his pace.
“
What are we going to do if neither gateway works? “ Brigid asked as they
passed into the redoubt and the door began to close behind them.
“
We’ll cross that bridge when get to it. “ Kane replied “ The way other our
other field trips into the field have gone I’ve learned not to worry about the
little things and focus on surviving. Not to mention if what this Sharpeville
Mag says turns out to be true then this could be another one presenter. We’ve
done this kind of thing before and survived so we’ll do it again. “
Boston:
Two Hours Earlier.
Sergeant
William Thorp led his squad of Sharpeville Magistrates down what was once
Somerset street in downtown Boston towards the Federal Plaza building and the
FBI offices. Thorp didn’t think his mission was all that becoming of a Mag
officer, never mind important enough to take a squad of fully trained Mags from
the Ville’s defense and send to a city hardly anyone lived in anymore. But the
Baron had grown uneasy about the rumors of a freezie asking questions, and no
matter what Baron Cobalt said about it being a trap laid out by Kane, Baron
Cobalt had his own issues with Kane and they didn’t concern Baron Sharpe.
Baron Sharpe had felt the threat was real enough to send a squad f his
best Magistrates to Boston where rumor had it this freezie and his army of
followers was making there home.
The
once proud, historic city had not fair well when Skydark hit on January 19,
2001. Being a city with a busy harbor, and several government and military
building’s had sealed it fate even before the bombs had fallen. With it’s
many hospitals, some of which being funded by the Military the city had been hit
and hit hard. The Russian nukes had turned a once spectacular skyline into a
skyline made up of a dozen broken and battered skyscrapers. Rubble from the
other buildings that had been brought back to earth when the blast waves hit
littered the streets making most streets passable only on foot or in some cases
impassable. The office towers that had crowded one another for space in an
ever-shrinking skyline, where gone. From his flight in on a DeathBird Thorp knew
the center of the city was a rolling hole of jagged concrete and steel. The
tunnel that had cost the tax payers so much money, during the project dubbed the
Big Dig, had not been designed to whitstand the blasts of the nukes that rained
down on the city. In a heartbeat the once majestic park that in so many ways
resembled Central Park, was consigned to the ground from once it came. Two
hundred years after the world ended, Boston was far from the once great and
sprawling metropolis where freedom was born some two hundred and twenty-five
years before. That city was gone, replaced by a rolling mass of rubble that had
become the home of ghouls and the spirits of those that died with in the city
when the bombs had fallen. They had just come around from behind a pile of
rubble, the federal plaza building coming into sight, when a series of reports
from a large caliber hand blaster shattered the silence. The two Mags on Thorps
right went down in a spray of blood, brains, and bone; each shot through the
center of the forehead right between their eyes. The Mag issue helmets doing
nothing to stop the rounds, which meant there attackers were using depleted
uranium rounds, which were rare in a ville’s armory, and almost nonexistent
out in the wilds of the Outlands. In the splinter of time it took Thorp to
process all of that and access the situation a second volley of Blaster fire
erupted from up ahead and two more Mags dropped to the cracked pavement of what
was once Somerset Street. With a start three more shots rang out behind Thorp,
dropping two more Mags to the pavement. He had just begun to move to his left to
put himself between two large piles of rubble, when more shots rang out and a
sharp pain in his leg caused him to stumble and connect with the pavement face
first. As he clutched his wounded
leg he pulled himself between the piles of rubble he had been trying to reach,
just as several of his remaining Mags opened up with there Copperheads spraying
a large pile or rubble up ahead that was the source of the gunfire.
A
single figure dressed in a jet black business suit and tie, boldly stood up on
top of the pile of rubble and returned fire. For his boldness he was rewarded a
stuttering hail automatic fire from several copperheads. Thorp watched in
stunned silence as several bullets slammed into the mysterious figure's head,
anyone of those shots should have been fatal, but the figure in the business
suit only staggered. Fighting to maintain his footing on the pile of rubble,
Thorp was shocked when the figure took several steps back and then began an
ungainly shamble down the side of the pile, without so much as a scratch on his
face and head. It was as if his Mags had fired a several hundred rounds and not
a single hit on the figure. The figure moved towards his men firing his hand
blaster as he went, wounding four and driving the other five to ground. That was
before the second figure came sliding out of the rubble and shot two of those
five Mags before anyone knew he was among them. That was when Thorp noticed that
one of the five that had been crouching among the rubble with him had slipped
off.
A
young corporal named John Hale, he was a smart kid, Thorp knew that Hale would
head straight for the Deathbirds, which had landed several blocks away in what
was once called Boston Common. The common was little more that a dirt patch now
with a few over grown clumps of grass. The manicured trees, the trimmed green
grass, and landscaping were gone. Left forgotten somewhere among the sands of
time, gone in the blink of an eye like some many other things people took for
granted before Skydark came and swept it all away.
Thorp
was pulled from his thought as he was roughly hauled to his feet, with a shock
he realized he was looking straight into the face of the man who had been on the
pile and taken multiple hits to the head. With a sudden shock he realized the
man, if he could be called that, had skin that was pale almost to the point of
being transparent. His black eyes bore into Thorp with a contempt and hatred
that seemed to have no basis in reality. Seeing as Thorp had never laid eyes on
the face of the thing holding him, that hatred didn’t make sense to him. Where
had it come from and why was this thing so full of contempt and hate for him and
his men? He had a feeling they would find out soon enough and he had a feeling
he wasn’t going to like the answer when he finally got one. The figure raised
a fist and slammed it into Thorps face, and the darkness came rushing in to
claim him. His last conscious though was that Corporal Hale would make it to the
Deathbirds and bring back help, otherwise he and his those with in the squad who
had survived were dead.
Cerberus
Redoubt: Three hours later.
Kane,
Grant, Domi and Brigid stood around the comp system with its four large
speakers. Lakesh called the whole system his eyes and ears out in the Outlands.
They were about to hear the tape of the conversation between Baron Cobalt
and Baron Sharpe, about the attack in Boston and the Mags that had been killed.
Lakesh had already filled in Grant and Domi on what was going on by the time
Kane and Brigid had finished their conversation and entered the control room.
Kane nodded to Grant and Domi, as Brigid moved to stand by the system
glancing at Lakesh who nodded slightly.
“
Ok old man lets get this little meeting rolling. From the run down Brigid gave
me outside I got the impression that we don’t have whole lot of time to waste
here. “
Lakesh
nodded “ You are right in your assessment of the situation Mr. Kane. Things
are moving fast and we have no idea what’s going on.“
“
There is definitely something going on out there. “ Brigid replied “ Kane
and I agree that at least some of us are going to have to go to Boston and find
out what this freezie FBI agent is up to. I did a little bit of research based
of a piece of information that came from one of our Lakota friends. It had to do
with something called the Genesis Project. “
“
And? “ Kane prompted
“
It was an other cog in the totality concept wheel. It was connected to project
Calypso, which we know had to do with immortality. Project Genesis had to do
with the integration of inorganic parts with organic human tissue. Lakesh here
benefited from some of their research; the replacements he’s had over the
years were based on Genesis designs. They were trying to create something called
the New Empire. But there was nothing in the database that even hints at what
the New Empire was going to be. “
“
And you think this Project Genesis has something to do with what happened in
Boston? “ Grant asked
“
Its more than that. I think this Freezie we bumped into up in Maine was trying
to find out where Project Genesis was based. Based on what were about to listen
to I think he found at least part of Project Genesis and he’s used part of it
to attack Sharpeville’s Mags. Defending his secrets is my guess. “
“
Then lets hear this tape and then get ready to make a visit to the city where
Freedom started. “ Kane replied
Lakesh
nodded as his fingers nimbly skated across the key board imputing commands,
suddenly the speakers on top of the system crackled to life and the voice of
Baron Sharpe began coming from those speakers. “ It was a massacre Brother
eight of my Magistrates confirmed dead, four more confirmed as hostages and
three unaccounted for. Only one young Corporal was able to escape and give an
oral report and bring re-enforcement’s.“
“
Kane has killed Magistrates from three separate Ville’s including your own and
my own.“
“
This was not Kane’s doing. “ Sharpe roared “ My men were killed with a
large caliber semi-automatic hand blaster. You know as well I do that Kane uses
the Weapons that he was trained to use, Magistrate weapons. Which are both fully
automatic.“
“
That means nothing. “ Cobalt spat “ Kane has on more than one occasion
deviated from his training and his regular pattern of operation. This time is
just another instance of that. “
“
You are wrong and I will tell you why. “ Sharpe responded “ This was not
Kane, because Kane likes us to know he was the one that put the hurt on us. Not
to mention we both know Kane could never take half a dozen rounds from several
Copperheads to the head and not drop dead. “
“
Kane was behind the death of one of our Brothers. He is capable of many things.
You barely escaped your meeting with Kane alive.”
“
Kane spared my life. We are spending far too much time talking about Kane. We
need to get to the real issue. “
“
Which is? “
“
Two men took out eight fully armed Magistrates and wounding four others. Both of
these men took multiple hits from both Sin Eaters and Copperheads, and it did
nothing more than make them stagger a little bit. “
“
That isn’t possible. “
“
You of all people should know things are never what they seem out in the
Outlands. America’s government had its hand in many different things, all with
the same aim. Create a superior human being. We are both products of that
tinkering with Human DNA. “
“
Assuming your right about all of this, what are we suppose to do about
genetically altered humans who are impervious to blaster fire. “
“
I’m not sure. If I am right and I honestly hope I’m not, then we better hope
there’s a way to fight these things. Because if two of them can take out a
full squad of Magistrates then what could a dozen or two dozen do? “
With
that the tape ended and Lakesh made a few quick keystrokes causing the speakers
to fall silent. For once the old man was not the first to speak. He was pale and
drawn. Kane eyes him, briefly considering calling DeFore the resident medical
doctor to take look at him, but he dismissed the idea, mainly because no one
else seemed all that concerned about him.
“
This scares even me. “ Grant rumbled “
If the Barons are worried about the shit that went down then it has to be triple
bad. “
“
Agree with Grant. Barons not scare easy. Got bad feeling. “
“
The Barons being scared is all the more reason to make a jump out there and take
a look around. “ Kane replied turning to Lakesh “ Are either of the gateways
in Boston active? “
“
Yes. At least one the gateways that are part of the official Cerberus network.
But that particular gateway is listed as Frank Paul One and it’s functioning.
I checked for previous activity, and there have been at least a dozen jumps made
to and from this gateway in the last three months. The first activity on the
gateway came just before you left for Maine and the destination was the Cadillac
Mountain Redoubt. Then just before the three of you came back there was a jump
to the Frank Paul one gateway. That little fact pretty much links our FBI
Freezie to all of this.“
“
Where have the other jumps been too? “
“The
Western Isles, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Alaska, and the Barons in California
just to name a few. “ Lakesh replied “ Some of those redoubts we know where
research bases for several Totality Concept projects. The others may have been
but there’s no mention of them in the database as research facilities. So we
can only guess. “
“
Was there a jump made to a redoubt in North Carolina. Winston-Salem to be exact.
“ Brigid asked
Lakesh
made a few keystrokes on his keyboard before answering. “ Yes, there was.
About three weeks ago. Why? “
“
Because North Carolina was mentioned in the documents I came up with for Project
Genesis. I was thinking about it and I just remembered that there was a hospital
there in Winston-Salem that was part of medical row. It was doing major work
with mechanical implants before Skydark. I also remember seeing a gateway listed
in Winston-Salem, it was one of the gateways Ryan Cawder and his band visited.
Though the hospital they emerged in was not the one I was talking about. I think
we should visit this hospital before we go to Boston, we may find something that
will help us beat these things that attacked that Mag squad. ”
“
All right. That makes sense. It would be a pleasant change of pace to know what
were up against before we get there.“
“
It will also means you won’t be making shit up as you go along. “ Grant
Grumbled
Kane
looked at each of his companions as he asked, “ Is anyone against this little
field trip?”
Kane
chuckled to himself when no one answered “ Well just for the record I don’t
like the feel of this whole situation but we have no choice. We’ll meet back
here ready to jump in one hour; anyone wants to back out now the rest of us will
understand. “
No
one spoke. “ One hour then. Fully armed and ready to jump to North Carolina.
“
October
2000