Omega - Chapter 4

• Posted by Andrew Shepherd October 27, 2015 - 804 views

  Omega - Chapter 4

  TOC

  It was the most delicious meal that Thorne had ever tasted. Rabbit stew, made by Lydia. He gulped it down greedily, not caring that he was spilling it down his chin and onto the wooden table. Lydia sat opposite him watching him intently.

  "By the gods, anyone would think this is the first time you've ever eaten." she exclaimed.

  "It's the first time I've eaten anything resembling real food," said Thorne between mouthfuls. He shifted his weight and the wooden bench creaked. Lydia stared at the power armor.

  "What is that armor?" she asked curiously looking it up and down. Thorne took a gulp of ale to wash down the hunk of bread engorging his face.

  "It's power armor. It has its own energy source and increases my strength and speed ten-fold." Lydia continued to stare unashamedly. "And it resists all kinds of weapons damage and environmental threats."

  "So inside you are just an ordinary man?" Lydia looked him up and down speculatively.

  "Well, sort of. My body has been modified in many ways. I am actually called a cyborg." Lydia stared at him blankly.

  "A side-board?"

  "No, a cy-borg. I am part machine." Lydia's expression turned to slight apprehension.

  "So do you have all your...bits?" 

  This woman is very forward! thought Thorne. And incredibly beautiful too.

  "Yes, I have them all. They have just been...enhanced." he felt his cheeks reddening. Lydia's eyes widened.

  "Do you ever take that armor off?" she asked, with faux innocence.Thorne looked pointedly at her own steel and leather armor.

  "Do you?" 

  "I am always ready for battle," she said haughtily, tossing her lustrous black hair back.

  "As am I." he replied. Lydia pressed on.

  "But what about when, you know, you have to..." she asked, her cheeks also reddening and her eyes lowering below his waist.

  "The suit has a filtration system which recycles my water."

  "What?"

  "I can urinate inside the suit and it changes it back to water which I can drink." The housecarl's face took on a look of disgust.

  "You piss in your armor and then drink it?" She wrinkled her nose.

  "No, no its not the same, its..." But Lydia had already pushed her bowl away and had risen from the table. 

  Maxim walked into the room, wearing dark and silver armor, padded with black fur.

  "I hope that armor of yours can withstand some cold." he said to Thorne as he sat down in Lydia's place.

  "It should do," smirked Lydia. "He pisses in it." Thorne placed a gauntleted hand over his scarred face. Maxim looked at him quizzically and Thorne shook his head.

  "Never mind." he said. Maxim shrugged and tucked into his own bowl of stew. "So what's the plan?" asked Thorne, changing the subject.

  "We finish our travel preparations and then make for Castle Volkihar at first light, about an hour from now." replied Maxim.

  Lydia poked her head through a near-by doorway.

  "Please tell me we are not walking." she said plaintively. Maxim swallowed and tilted his head thoughtfully.

  "Well, horses would give us the speed we need, but stealth may allow us to travel undetected." he said. Thorne shook his head.

  "The Enclave's technology, enhanced by Zeta's will allow them to detect us with ease. If you are going to do something then do it fast."

  "We only have the two horses," replied Maxim. "What about you?"

  "I've never seen a horse run in real life," said Thorne. "But I should be able to match your speed with ease." Maxim shook his head in wonder.

  "Very well. Lydia, saddle the horses and pack for a week's provisions up north. We travel fast and light."

  "Yes, my thane." said Lydia with a sigh of relief, leaving the room. Maxim gave Thorne a serious look.

  "You do realize that if your flyers catch us on the main roads out in the open then we are dead?"

  "Yes," replied Thorne. "But presently they will be consolidating their position on and around the mountain. We have some time, about two Nirn weeks."

  "That should be enough to get to Volkihar and then on to Solitude." said Maxim thoughtfully. "Hopefully most of the Jarls and their people will have headed there. Except for one or two."

  "And then what?"

  "Clearly, we cannot fight the Enclave on their terms. We need a safe place to regroup and rally. And we will need the dragons' help. We are doomed without them."

  Thorne shuddered at the memory of the battle on the peak.

  "Ironic that the dragons that nearly destroyed your world are now its best hope."

  "Yes. I was just thinking the exact same thing." replied Maxim. "Come, we must make ready. I want to show you something. Follow me."

  Maxim rose from the table and walked to a large room adjoining the main hall. Thorne followed, his armored feet clomping on the stone floor. It was an armory, filled with strange armors and weapons. Maxim took an impressive golden warhammer down from a rack. It glowed in a soft green aura.

  "I have been pondering," began Maxim as he swung the weapon through the air with a rush of air. "I have seen your armor deflect all manor of weapons thus far." He fingered the hilt of his own sword at his side. "Except for Dawnbreaker. It cleaved through it as if it were plain steel."

  "Yes," agreed Thorne. "I have wondered about that too. What are these weapons?"

  "They are ancient, imbued with the power of the daedra. They must have some way of overcoming the advantages of power armor." Thorne's eyes widened.

  "Then we have a chance against the Enclave!" he exclaimed. "Your shield blocked my plasma rifle bursts too. If we can acquire more of these weapons and equip your best warriors we might stand a chance!"

  Maxim shook his head.

  "There is only a handful of them in all of Tamriel. I have three. The others are scattered or lost." Thorne cursed in frustration.

  "We have some thinking to do." he said simply.

  "Yes." Maxim tossed him the warhammer and Thorne caught it in one hand."This is Volendrung. It is better if we spread these weapons between us. " Thorne felt a sudden energy surge in his armor as he grasped the weapon. This was an object of awesome power.

  "Are you ready?" asked Maxim. Thorne nodded. "Then let us go. We can talk on the road."

                                                                                 *   *   *

  They made good time for the rest of that day. The horses were fit and healthy and traveled easily at a gallop. Thorne kept pace alongside of them in a great bounding lope, Volendrung slung over his back in a leather harness. They talked as they ran, the dragonborn's great voice matching Thorne's amplified one over the roaring wind, sharing ideas on how to deal with the great crisis facing the planet. As they traveled, Thorne marveled at the wildlife. So much of it like the pictures and video he had seen of pre-war earth. It was as if Earth and Nirn had been in contact at some point in the past...

  They traveled into the twilight racing through snowy forest and deep rocky gorges, across raging rivers and swampy marsh land, off the more well-trodden trails. Finally, they came to the wooded foothills at the base of a snow-capped mountain range. The air was definitely cold now. Maxim and Lydia had both wrapped heavy fur cloaks around them, but Thorne's temperature remained constant with the armor's internal thermostat regulation. He took a sip of water from the rubber nozzle near his mouth within the helmet. Piss my ass! he thought, looking at Lydia riding ahead in the gathering gloom.

  They soon reached a clearing among the trees and rocks, a babbling stream running nearby. Maxim slowed and dismounted.

  "This seems like a good place to camp." he said. Thorne removed his helmet with a hiss of air and helped them unpack the horses and set up the tents. Maxim lit a fire as Lydia led their mounts to the stream to drink, rubbing them down as they did so.

  For a while they sat in silence around the fire, staring at the flames, eating dried meat, bread and cheese and drinking watered wine from leather flasks. Thorne volunteered first watch as Maxim and Lydia retired to their tents. Used to sleeping on the ground in his armor, Thorne needed no tent. He stood and began to patrol around the edges of the campsite, his infrared sensors scanning into the deepening night.

  Around midnight, Thorne heard it. The barely perceptible sound of soft foot falls, creeping though the woods. He turned up the infrared on his targeting range finder. Nothing, no heat signatures at all. He amplified the audio. Whispers, out in the dark. His motion tracker swept out into the forest in the direction of the voices. A slight movement in the shadows. He zoomed in and saw a shape, but it was translucent, as if it was bending the light. He slowly drew his laser pistol and took aim at the distortion in the air.

  With a blur it leaped forwards, moving directly for him.

  "Contact!!" roared Thorne as the entity sprang upon him, suddenly materializing into a frenzy of fangs, claws and glowing red eyes. It staggered him backwards but he kept his feet and flung the creature away from him, following it with a blast from his pistol. It twisted in mid air, avoiding the beam and landed on its feet in a crouch, balls of red energy forming in it's clawed hands. At least a dozen more of the creatures suddenly appeared from the woods around the first, eyes glowing. They were humanoid, wearing robes and pieces of armor, some wielding weapons and others the glowing balls of energy in their hands. They crouched, tensing, ready for another strike.

  "SO !!" roared a great voice from behind. Thorne turned his head slightly to see Maxim standing on a large rock behind him. Dawnbreaker had burst into flame in his fist, suddenly lighting up the clearing, making the creatures shy away from the light. "Obviously you have not heeded the lady Serana's call!" he snarled at them. The lead creature straightened defiantly.

  "We will not bow to the will of that bitch!" it spat. "Daughter of Cold Harbor or no, we prey on who we will, not just lowly bandits and criminals. Occasionally I crave the taste of highborn blood." several of its companions snickered.

  "Then face justice, foul nightcrawlers!" cried Maxim and with a shout sped forward in a blur, impaling the lead creature through the chest with Dawnbreaker. It looked in shock at the burning sword blade protruding from its body and then exploded in an expanding ring of fire which ignited its nearby companions. They ran wailing into the woods. Thorne opened fire with his pistol at the untouched creatures. On the full setting they were instantly vaporized into piles of smoking ash. Maxim continued to slice through their assailants, Dawnbreaker cleaving and burning. Lydia had also raced from her tent, bow in hand, and was feathering the creatures attempting to flank the warriors with silver-tipped shafts. Those that did not fall to her arrows were quickly dispatched by Maxim and Thorne.

  Within moments the creatures had either become smoking ash piles or had fled. Maxim sheathed his sword and Thorne his pistol. Maxim looked at him and Lydia, inspecting them.

  "Did any of them bite you?" Lydia shook her head.

  "Wait," said Thorne. "Were they.."

  "Vampires. Yes."

  Thorne shook his head and removed his helmet. First dragons, now vampires.

  "I suppose you have werewolves here too then?" he asked wryly.

  "As a matter of fact yes. A couple of them are good friends." Thorne looked at him ,trying to work out if he was joking. Then it dawned on him.

  "Lady Serana," he began slowly. "Your friend, Serana." Maxim gave him a direct look.

  "Is a vampire, yes." Thorne opened his mouth to speak, but Maxim held up his hand.

  "And no, I don't want to talk about it just now. Get some sleep Thorne, I'll take next watch." Thorne stared for a few seconds and then made his way over to the campfire wondering if this was really the paradise he had first thought it was.

  Maxim continued to stand at the edge of the clearing in the dim light, sword in hand, staring into the night.