Chapter 85: The Grave of Dreams IV

  “So, is there a particular reason why you dislike Cromwell?” Marcus asked casually as he helped Candis to clean up the remnants of the breakfast. The old woman gave him a little smile and chuckled “It is not so much the man but what he stands for.” she said and Marcus stopped his task, giving her his full attention. “What he stands for?” he repeated and she looked amused. “The old Empire, the United Kingdom of old. Colonization, exploitation, wars, slavery, crimes against humanity, crimes against nature, they did it all, better and more than anybody else. That Empire is long dead of course, but the memory lives on in noble families like the Cromwell.” She said and Marcus had not expected this angle. Of course he knew of the old British Empire, but that was history. “I always despised it when people became really polite just because somebody is a lord or duke. We don’t owe them, it is the other way around.” Candis said.

  “She is right.” an unexpected voice joined their discussion. Lord Cromwell stood not too far behind them with some dirty plates. “My family and the other noble families and royals have accumulated a large amount of sins. Long time ago the wealth of my family was built with the hands of slaves and the oppression of other people.” Alistair continued and Candis gave him an inquisitive look. “I can not undo that or anybody else. When I was young I rebelled against my family and did everything I could to bring my family down. I thought destroying everything was the right path.” The old man talked and Marcus could see that he walked down memory lane. “You seem to have changed your tune over time.” Candis said as if she was disappointed that he did not succeed. “I did indeed. When I got older and after my father became very ill, I learned that behaving like an idiot does not make anything better. You can not change the past but you can very well form the future, is what my father told me. And so I did, like he had before me and my grandmother had before him.”

  Marcus listened and knew he said the truth. The Cromwell family and their holdings were active in green energy and robotics, high tech medical devices and water recovery tech. “Just putting a layer of green paint on, does not change what is underneath.” Candis said confronting the old lord. “There is no family, no bloodline that is not covered in blood and sin. That is human nature, that is our history. I will not be defined by the deeds of the past but my actions today.” Lord Cromwell said and put his plates down. Marcus agreed with the lord on this point, being born a German he knew a thing or two about a damning legacy. Candis watched the man for a moment and then nodded “Then I shall judge you on your actions Alistair.” she said and the situation resolved.

  The second day followed the script of the first and they moved through more residential areas filled with dead, looming buildings and the occasional Maken attack. Eventually they found some kind of industrial area and started to inspect the facilities. The remnants of large complex machines covered tall halls but it was unclear what they once produced. “We have incoming.” Janette said and everybody went into combat positions “But they are humans.” she added after a few seconds. Another raid team! Marcus thought. This was maybe more dangerous than monsters. Far away from law and order, a dispute or even a misunderstanding can have deadly consequences when groups of class holders met.

  The group came slowly through the ruins of another production hall and they moved very carefully. Everybody was trying to avoid any accidents. One by one they became visible and Marcus counted twelve people, heavily armed and well equipped. Their levels felt mixed, like their own, but they had at least a few people that could match Hammond and Rita in level. After the groups had closed the distance to about fifty meter some communication attempts in English followed. A woman stepped forward and Grace did the same. Marcus watched practical diplomacy from the sidelines and he could tell many of the other side did the same. The faces and languages he heard made it very clear that this was a team from the Chinese Block. Chinese, Russian, Korean, Thai and other he could not tell apart. The meeting did only last ten minutes and the groups parted ways.

  “We just confirmed nobody is interested in problems and decided to look for loot in different parts of the structure. They warned us about the Maken and something they called Stalker and I told them about the horror of the Hellbats. Long story short, we will stay out of each others way.” Grace told the raid team and everybody was relieved things turned out to be peaceful. They continued on, going roughly in the opposite direction of the other group. “How did they get here in the first place. They were Chinese Block for sure. Can’t see the Danish government giving them free access, especially after the rule changes.” Janette made a good point while they crawled over a large pile of rubble in search of a pot of gold. “They might have come from a different portal. It is rare but it can happen. I would rather know how they learned of this place this fast.” Kou said and others agreed on that. “Intelligence services.” Alistair said with a dry voice. “This raid team is most likely state funded and here to gain technology or power for the Block.” he said.

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  Marcus was still in deep thought about the other raid group and international politics as they moved through another large production building. They passed through a hall were a part of the ceiling had collapsed and some parts of the floor were broken. “Careful everybody. Lets only go one person after the other.” Rita said. They passed the damaged area one by one and Marcus stayed behind as the rear guard. As the last person, he followed the rest. He did not hear any cracks or structure breaking, from one moment to the other the ground under his feet just vanished and Marcus fell into darkness.

  Out of instinct he put Carapace to max and covered his head with his hands as he fell through several levels of the structure. Debris, rubble and pieces of the floors came with him and smashed against his body with tremendous strength. He lost any feeling for up and down and held his breath while he fell deeper and deeper. Eventually he stopped falling but he was covered in total darkness. The fall was far less painful than he would have expected, over 40 vitality and Carapace made it possible. Heavy pieces of debris lay on his body and he could barely move. He took deep breaths and oriented himself. This is up, he thought and moved his hand to use Impulse Hammer to free himself a bit. One shot and something came lose but even more pressure shifted onto his body. “….cus?” His com still picked up signals. “Don’t mo... ...y still, ...ill be with ... in ...nt.” It was Rita’s voice.

  And so he waited. Marcus was all but comfortable but his body had already healed and he was not in direct danger, he hoped. The thing that caused him the most trouble was the absolute darkness and the heavy weight pressing down on him. Time went by and he could not tell how much. Ten minutes, thirty? Had they trouble to follow him? Most likely, the area is unstable. Maybe monsters had shown up? No, he would have heard the machine guns. More time went by, an hour at least. Why did they not call again? Did something happen? Maybe the other group attacked them from behind? No machine guns, idiot! But if they ambushed them? With Janette in the group? Why did it take so long?

  It must have been two hours as something shifted and the pressure on his body faded. Heavy pieces of debris moved away and he could see light. “He is here!” Kou shouted and many hands freed him from his early grave. As soon as he had his arms and legs free he carefully stood up and with the help of Kou climbed out of his hole. Cheering followed and Janette hugged him tightly. “You took your sweat time.” Marcus said while Candis checked him out. “We moved as fast as we could. We had to get down 6 levels and start digging you out. Half an hour is not slow.” Kou said. “Half an hour? I was sure it was at least two hours.” Marcus answered and gratefully took a large bottle of water from Hammond. “Sorry if I say this, but I’m happy it happened to you. Anybody else might have died.” Rita said and Marcus knew she was right. “On the other hand you are the heaviest in the raid...no more extra sweats for Marcus.” to his surprise it was Achara who said it. In contrast to this, Janette gave him a chocolate bar a few minutes later. “Soul food” she said.

  After getting his bearings again Marcus looked up the large hole his fall had caused and the new area they had entered. “Looks a lot more posh than the production area.” He said looking at the walls and floor around him. “Yeah, you might have accidentally guided us to a nice bit of the ruins. You should fall more often.” Grace said and gave him a slap on the back. Before they moved on, Marcus checked his gear and as he had feared the com in his helmet was broken. “My com system is damaged. Can somebody fix it?” He asked without much hope but Alistair took the helmet and brought out a set of tools. Five minutes later it was working again. “Turns out this old fossil is still useful.” Alistair made a joke about himself and looked satisfied.

  “Well, than let’s take a look around.” Grace said and the two groups spread out searching for something good. And for once they hit the jackpot. Grace’s group found a large plaza with an impressive building. It was now in ruins but in its time it must have been a sight to behold. Ornaments, a wide entrance, large reinforced double doors...”It looks too well defended to be just a fancy building. Could it be some kind of official building, maybe something combat related? There are remnants of defense positions here.” Janette said and “remnants” was the right choice of words. Large pieces of the floor and the walls were missing. Deep grooves and other damage spoke of more than just the passing of time “I think this place has seen some serious combat.” Carlos said who also inspected the damaged areas. “What ever it is, it is worth checking out.” Grace said and was the first to move into the building.