Point of Documentation: Marshall, Phoenix 11

  The second that each of the three combatants had seen each other was this moment of pure tension that seemed to solidify and stretch out what was already purely evident. That was boiled down to a simple fact: two very dangerous things were about to fuck Marshall up in between them tearing each other apart. Marshall, for one, was absolutely not for that train of events.

  The Vulture had enough length to swing, and so it did. It swung at Tellar with its sharp talon so quickly that he barely had enough time to step out of the way. If it wasn’t still trapped by its bulbous abdomen under the arch it would have had enough reach to decapitate the man then and there. Instead, Tellar’s neck was half-removed and he had to press his hand onto his head to force it from knocking around. The quickness seemed to really off-set the man and give Marshall enough time to act.

  With the two engaged in battle, one doing his best to maintain a distance and the other trying desperately to kill the man, Marshall fled around the back of the Voidling. He looked over his options and, as bad as it seemed, he only really had one: he needed to figure out where that voice from earlier was coming from and if it could help. If that Vulture escaped from what was holding it, it would carve a swath of dead out onto the surface and then probably farther past it.

  Marshall had thought multiple times since he came here that this place was not his problem. These people, these issues, these lands. He was an Outlander and had no real attachment to Terra as a whole because of it. Yet, as he thought of these two surviving and causing more carnage, his mind boiled with rage and disgust. He needed to do something, even if he had no real power to.

  As Marshall was standing at the opposite side of the Vulture from Tellar, he had little idea of how the man was faring with the beast. It didn’t help that Vultures were about the size of a bus as a standard. This one was not standard. It was swelled up and made it slightly larger than that. Due to that, it seemed to be just large enough to cover up the fight towards its front. So the scream he heard made Marshall jump when it didn’t sound like either the beast or Tellar. He stepped slightly to the side to get a look and his heart dropped.

  Tellar had been fending off the slowly freeing and encroaching monstrosity well enough until he started losing ground. It seemed he deemed that moment important enough to snatch up a nearby researcher and…

  Her body fell to the ground as one of the nameless people who had tried to flee the room in the ensuing fight was consumed in moments by the man. It wasn’t pretty, and it wasn’t painless. He had ripped the woman’s head off and spread the blood as far as he could outside of what he drank. The reason was lost on Marshall until he remembered what the man could do. He was a fucking vampire.

  Tellar gestured towards the pool of blood and forced small ripples all along the pool. In a flash, the blood shot spikes up and into the monster from all around its front where the pool was. The monster let out a scream of pain and rage and slithered back a few feet to create more distance. However, it was not inactive. As it fell back from the man, a mimicked rippled like the blood ran across its upper-back. Spikes formed where the shoulder blades were and shot out like rockets towards the man. One impacted shy of the man’s head, and he used the woman’s now-lifeless body to take the shot of the second. It buried itself far enough that it nearly passed into Tellar as well. Unluckily enough for Marshall, it was just short.

  With this distraction of priorities, Marshall approached the arch that held the back of the monster in place. It groaned and shifted in obvious complaints of stress and strain to keep the thrashing thing in place. Who had placed this thing here? And why had they not just killed this thing instead of trapping it? Marshall could only see one reason for it: the person who erected this hadn’t the power to actually kill a Vulture but had the tools to stop it for a while. With all the mass this thing has as well he could imagine that it had the possibility to mutate multiple times to counter whatever was thrown at it. Given enough time, that is. Marshall had no intention to give it that amount of time.

  The arch seemed to be some kind of old-Terra technology from the way that it looked. Old interfaces with no true holographics or full-input controls. It was instead made up of older designed holo-displays like what Cadence and the crew of Betty used as well as physical controls like buttons and knobs. The biggest knob being the one trying to run the controls with no actual experience with machines like this.

  Marshall’s hand landed on the display and it flickered to life at his touch. A small screen came up that requested he put in his credentials to use the machine. The string of curses that left his mouth could have wilted vegetation around him if anything was alive down here other than monsters and bandits. As he was reaching his crescendo of frustration, however, the display flickered a couple times and skipped past the entrance page. Marshall blinked at the unexpected change and, without further hesitation, laid into the menus and documents left on this thing’s data storage.

  He brought up a couple of documents that labeled this as a ‘Flux-Gate Cap’. Marshall tried to bring up any memory of what that could mean, but drew a blank. There were so many damn machines in the number of centuries since Terra fell to the Voidling onslaught that it was nearly impossible to know exactly what–

  The screen once more flickered under his hands and a new screen came up with an absolute wall of text that nearly blinded Marshall. The brightness on the screen turned way up and the lines along the arch that had been hidden before lit up with a purple, incandescent glow. Whatever this thing just did, Marshall could draw that it had just activated something.

  It also seemed like the other two who were boxing back and forth were not going to give him the time to read an entire book on what this thing actually was. Marshall felt the wind of something fly past his head and leaned back from the machine to hopefully dodge anything else coming his way. He took a step back and turned to see Tellar huffing in exhaustion and a hand extended out towards Marshall. A venomous smile spread across his face as he spoke. “If you’ve got time to read, you have time to help me. Then we can have that wonderful talk about you becoming my sla–”

  The words were, mercifully, ended short as the Vulture swung once more at Tellar. He stepped back and snatched up the woman from before that acted out towards Marshall. Her name tag that dangled around her neck read Dr. Frieda Vintaile. A pang of regret flowed through Marshall as he watched her be picked up and Tellar’s teeth neared her neck. She did stop him, and she did cause the man to come down here to begin with. And yet…

  The eyes of the woman landed on Marshall’s own, locking them in place. There wasn’t fear in them. There was anger. Pure rage and vindictiveness that fought through any hardship she could ever befall her. Marshall, a man of combat and a comrade of war, could see that look and recognize it anywhere.

  The hand guided itself almost too fast for Marshall’s brain to register what he was doing. Almost. He reached down and grabbed his pistol at rest to bring it up and point at Tellar. The vampire was far too busy trying to fend off a Vulture and get his teeth into the thrashing woman to notice Marshall, dozens of meters away, raising a pistol towards his head. The shot rang out and Tellar’s eyes shot up just in time to convey his boiling rage before they painted the wall behind him. The Vulture took this moment to stab forwards into Tellar and skewer him at the end of its talon-like appendage.

  The Doctor dropped to the ground and scrambled towards the door. She shot a look over her shoulder towards first Tellar, then Marshall. The look in her eyes was… complicated. The fire that raged in them, however, was not even slightly quelled. She quickly took her leave through the door along with the majority of the surviving scientists now that Tellar wasn’t corralling them while fighting the Vulture.

  Marshall prepared to fight the Vulture as its eyes all turned towards him. That was until a crunching noise was heard and the Vulture bucked in place. Marshall’s eyes darted back towards Tellar again, only to see the man had somehow healed through the partial remaining head again. The spike in his chest was directly in the center, so maybe it required the man to be stabbed in the heart? Marshall was running out of ways to kill this man at this point and might need to come up with something more creative. Tellar, however, seemed to be fully against that as he gripped the talon of the Vulture and crushed it in his hands.

  The Vulture pulled back the appendage and the extremely cheat-like regeneration that Voidlings were known for kicked in and replaced the appendage nearly instantly. One of its back legs kicked out and nearly took Marshall’s own head off at the neck. He ducked and avoided the blow while also once more orienting himself around the back of the Vulture to hide from Tellar’s scathing gaze.

  Yeah, he can handle that things for a little longer while Marshall figured out how to use this arch.

  Marshall’s hands once more landed on the display, but it had changed since the last time he had looked at it. It now read much shorter and more concise compared to what it was before!

  “The Flux-Gate Cap is an arch made to hold Void-Matter (previously called Flux-Matter) in place and stable for individual teleportation at range. The Flux-Gate Cap, coined and created in 2055 by Polish scientist Charles Pertograde during the Hidden Horizons project, facilitates a tethering between two quantum molecule-clumps that are used to transfer matter between the two locations. For deeper understanding on the process, please refer to the onboarding ‘Quantum-Entanglement: Movement and You’ pamphlet you were assigned.”

  Did this machine just get an attitude with him? He couldn’t be sure, but it felt like this machine just copped a snarky response to him thinking that the description was too long before. And where was he supposed to find a pamphlet hundreds of years after this thing was made and the place was deserted? Marshall felt cross at this thing, but tried to not let it infect his voice or demeanor. If it reacted to his touch and irritation before, then…

  “Hey, uh, machine? Arch? How can I stop this Voidling from escaping and opening a Nest?” He felt stupid for asking an object anything and felt like anyone watching him would think he was crazy. Yet, even as he stood there and felt dumb for it, the screen actually changed and moved. Instead of showing the document it did before it opened up a writing space and started scrawling words across it.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “I do not understand the question. Please define ‘Voidling’, ‘Nest’, and why the Flux-Gate Cap should have this functionality.”

  Marshall stared for a moment, the only noise being from the Voidling and Tellar keeping the little match they had going. He felt a weight on his shoulder as a familiar voice filled his ears. “Oh ho ho! I haven’t seen a power that wakes up Void-tainted machines before. And yet, here’s a talking panel of text! What an interesting development you are!” Tethel’s whining voice barked out in something close to glee. “Though it doesn’t seem all too intelligent right now. Just request and response driven. Must be because of how weak you are!”

  Marshall’s eyes didn’t even bother to drift up as annoyance was clear in his gaze. “Yes, so amazing– Now tell me how to get it to understand. I don’t know how to work this thing at all, and I need to stop this from–”

  A squelching pop came from the arch as the Voidling came completely free from the arch, causing a pause in the room that everyone felt. Tellar looked like he just swallowed a screw, the two remaining scientists both were paler than the walls were, and even Tethel took pause and looked over. Marshall, on the other hand, was looking in abject horror as the Vulture cleared the arch and slid a meter from it. A small hole resided where it was but moments ago. The feeling of dread that Marshall got from it was not only palpable, but seemed to have an actual weight to it. The two remaining people in the room untouched by the Void-Scourge instantly seemed to start seizing from over-exposure, the sound of them thrashing being the only other noise now in the room as the Vulture came to a stop.

  Tellar looked up at the Vulture now looming over him and got a sour look on his face. “I’m guessing a ceasefire to change my pants isn't on the table?” he said up to the towering form.

  Those words seemed to break the tension in the room in an explosive manner. The Vulture screamed a hoarse roar and swung at Tellar, which he barely managed to roll out of the way of. Blood soon flew as he didn’t roll fully out of the way of it, only partially. The vampire used some of his power to make weapons and projectiles with the blood as he done before, but in much greater quantity now.

  Marshall, seeing the brawl beginning in more earnest across the room from him, also furiously got to work. Tethel hovered a little off the ground with his mystical powers of pure annoyance and became like an annoying bug circling his head. Marshall seemed to only care on a surface level with the panic of the situation setting in. “Flux– Whatever the fuck you are– I need you to tell me how to use this thing. Now.”

  A second was like a lifetime as the room quickly devolved into an all-out brawl between the Vampire and Voidling. Still, a second it took as it thought. A small slot opened up and all the power on the display cut out. The slot produced a small object that seemed clear at first glance. As Marshall studied it, however, he could somehow tell that the material was completely covered and inundated with small little crawling nano-bots that drew and re-drew images on the small thing.

  “I am not putting a writhing contact on my eye. I chose to die.” Marshall said very flatly. Tethal burst out laughing above him, the sound nearly being drowned out by the fight now circling around the room.

  Tethel, a grin now plastered on his face, spoke. “Oh come now, child! Put the fruits of your effort on and equip it. Let your–”

  Marshall looked up to Tethal and said simply “No.” once again. A very firm and resolute answer. This caused Tethal to slow his laugh and gain more of his bored and annoyed expression back.

  “Fine by me. I’ll just go and help the–” His words once again being cut off as the torso of Tellar landed between them. The face was mangled and one of his arms was missing as well. Needless to say: it looked like he was actually dead this time. Both Tethal and Marshall slowly followed the trail of blood with their eyes to the Vulture, in the corner and crunching down on the lower section of what remained of Tellar.

  “I guess that’s one issue dealt with… but I kinda wish the lesser evil survived.” came the dry response from Marshall. His eyes traveled back to the contact from the device. A curse left his lips again as he picked it up and shivered. “Fuck it, here goes nothing.”

  Point of Documentation: jafo?2q&(anfkl

  Hunger. Hunger, and spread. Open the way for the others. Need to move. Have to feed. Hunger. Grow and feed and grow to feed and feed to grow.

  It woke up and wasn’t shocked back asleep this time. Something had changed. It had changed. The environment had changed. What was task? Spread. Spread and feed and grow.

  It had the chance to reach out and claim more meat. So it did. It kept missing and that made it mad. How dare food try to escape it! It must chase it and consume it.

  The others through the flimsy plane craved to be released. They needed to feed and be actuated. They needed to be real. To be material. To consume and grow.

  It shrugged off that terrible binding finally. Stubborn food kept it locked up and hungry. No more. Now it will feed on the wonderful food choice it was chasing.

  At last, it got the food. It tasted so good that it couldn’t help but savor it. So much power for such a small treat. All for it. It would not be a the same form for long. All it needed was the rest of the food.

  But where did the rest of the food go? It was swiped away so easily…

  A pressure. It felt like fire on its material. Material wanted to burn away, wanted to split and fester. It looked up towards the fire. More food? Then why was the food bright?

  It must. No. I must snuff it out.

  Point of Documentation [correcting]…

  Marshall put the contact in and instantly it was the most uncomfortable thing in the world to him. He could feel the small things move across the film and then… vanish? Oh hell no, that’s even worse than knowing they were on the contact’s film. He shuddered and it racketed his whole body in its spasms of rejection.

  The feelings of revulsion were quickly replaced, however, with a warm sensation coming from his eye he placed it in. A display appeared in his view like a window to one of the holo-displays back home. It read ‘Init();’ in a small window with a loading bar below it. The bar moved fairly quickly and was replaced with another window that said ‘Sit-Rep updating. This may take some time.’

  Marshall looked flatly at the screen, or rather he would have if it was there for anyone else. To Tethal, he probably just started staring into space for a moment before looking around. The screen moved with his vision for a moment before being relegated to a small exclamation point in the corner of his vision. He wondered how he’d be able to even get it down from there if he can’t look at it; yet even as he was thinking that, it expanded as he thought about it.

  “Neat~” came the elated reply from Marshall at this turn of events. At least things were looking a little more comfortable for him.

  No sooner did he think that before his eyes refocused on the Vulture at the other end of the room. The Vulture that was now making its way towards him at a creeping pace. It looked like a cat stalking its prey, even mimicking the lack of central movement as the legs slowly creeped it forwards. Yeah, that was creepy as all get-out. However, his eyes weren’t the only thing that focused on the creature as the contact in his right eye showed this target-like display over the creature. Its focus yielded more than a shaky feeling of uneasiness.

  ‘Target locked. Epsilon Entity detected. Reclassifying: Voidling; Vulture mutation. Recompiling registry.’

  Half a dozen sections of the creature gained small pinpricks of red on them that seemed like target dots. Actually… they looked exactly like the targeting assistance that his interceptor had in it! A moment of confusion was replaced by both elation and apprehension. This thing knew to show him what he was used to without prompting or otherwise.

  A thought crossed his mind and he concentrated on the link that he had felt before. The one crying out for help. The one that seemed stuck and in a loop, only to be trapped trapping another. The feeling bubbled up around him unlike it did before. No longer at a distance, but right near him.

  No. It was ON him.

  ‘Compiling complete. Conductor; please aim for the locations marked.’ The words less showed up in his vision as it seemed as if they were spoken directly into his mind. The same link that he had tried to explore just seconds ago.

  Without another thought, and with the Vulture seeming to be prepping to pounce on him from a dozen meters away, Marshall raised his pistol. The plasma cylinder was done charging, the heat dissipated after the time between shooting Tellar and now, and nothing between him and his target. It was time to escape this Hell he had been trapped in and go back to the real world.

  The gun barked rapidly, letting out rounds into the open air to hit their targets. One of the legs of the beast blew open and apart like Tellar had done to it when it had stabbed him. Only, instead of one wound, he made five of them. This caused the creature to fall forwards and slide with the momentum it had been winding up. The back legs kicked off, but ended up making it more like a crashing bus than a rampaging truck.

  Marshall jumped to the side as it crashed into the spot he had just been and kept sliding. It rammed hard into the arch and bent around it, the head ending up near the opening. The opening that, by now, was starting to spill out so much Void that it was making the air look like a rave of purple lights flashing rapidly. Those not Void-Scourged in the room were long dead by the point.

  The creature screamed and tried to stand up, the obliterated front few claws doing nothing for it and had to rely on the back legs to do all the lifting. The healing started quickly… but only made short, but sudden progress before teetering out. It seemed confused by this and screamed once more at Marshall. “What? All Castle-tech and weapons are anti-you, asshole. I can spit in an armory and land on something that was meant to combat you. Talking about that–”

  The plasma chamber on the bottom of the pistol hissed viciously and a thick, blue, impossibly hot energy streaked out and connected with the rear of the creature. Directly on target with the red dot painted by the machine. A wet popping noise that was somehow both quiet and impossible to miss came from the impact as it started to burn through the rear of the thing. A strange concoction of Void-Energy and a new, dark grey energy came from the wound that started to leak out into the ambient soup that was now nearly a fog in the room. A fog he was sure he wouldn’t have even noticed before becoming… whatever he was now.

  The contact’s machine whirred to life and a new box popped up. ‘Alert! Flux being connected… Transporting.’

  The body was forcefully shoved through the hole forming in the floor with a crunching sound so fast that it all just blended together into one loud ‘CRUNCH’. The hole, however, stayed. It stayed, and it also started doing something odd that Marshall had only really seen in reports. Typically reports on how entire swaths of regions get buried under Void-Energy and become completely tainted.

  “Oh fuck, Tethal, how do I stop a Nest from bursting?!”