After the Great War was over, the one between Vader and D'artagnan, and after the conclusion of the prophecy, things began to return to normal. People began their lives again. It was going to be a new age of prosperity and happiness in people's minds. They saw that the long night was over, and they were finally reaching the dawn.
Vader and his friends decided to land and unpack. After all they needed a vacation. It was about a week later. They had all moved comfortably into the place again. Everyone was enjoying himself or herself doing something or another. Xuilinc, Lord Li, and Lady Sakura were walking through the art galleries. The Gundam pilots were at the pool, except for Heero, he was looking for stuff to upgrade zero. The Jedi were setting up the school again. Everyone was busy beginning his or her new life.
However, our story begins with three people. Vader, DarkMigit, and Albert were away from the rest. They figured they might as well look at what D'artagnan had in his top-secret areas below the school. They had actually found the bunker while playing DOOM over the network. Albert hit the Windows Key, and then in his futile attempt to find DOOM he opened this one file with a report of updates for D'artagnan. And there was a map with notation for a hidden, secure bunker deep underground.
But all of this is not important to our story. What is important is what happened from then on...
Chapter 1: Induction
The elevator stopped, with a loud screech. The door almost had to be forced open. The three stepped out of the elevator into a long concrete hallway with an arched ceiling high above. But there was rubble all over the floor. At the other end of the hallway was a lone door, with a small computer panel next to it. All three of them stopped and looked at the mess.
"Whoa! What happened down here?" asked Albert
"It must have been damaged during the attack," said DarkMigit as he began to walk toward the door, "But we could still get in."
He walked up to the door. But it was locked tight.
"Oh well. It's locked," said Albert.
"We could blast our way in," suggested Vader
"Yeah!" said DarkMigit lifting his hand with palm facing the door.
"And we could risk that there is a self-destruct device," said Albert.
"True" said Vader.
"Then we'll do it the long way," said DarkMigit drawing a small device from his pocket and raising it toward the control panel.
"What's that?" asked Albert
"My computer," said DarkMigit, "Hacking the security grid accessing the door systems."
A few seconds later the door hissed open with a voice saying, "Sector one access granted."
"Sector one?" said Albert with a confused look on his face.
"Yes. Apparently there are three sectors. Each more secure and more secret than the last," said DarkMigit looking down at his computer and walking through the door, "I've got a map here."
"Wouldn't they have left booby traps?" asked Albert
"Why do you think that you're walking in front of us?" asked Vader in response, "You know I really need to get one of those little things."
"Yeah," said DarkMigit, "Lets just keep going. We're in sector one, which doesn't really have anything. We want to get to sector three where all the prototype weapons a...."
He stopped and noticed the look on Albert's face.
"And....uh...other stuff is...," DarkMigit ended his sentence quickly.
They wandered their way through the first sector, which really was empty. Then DarkMigit hacked another door, which led to sector two.
Sector two was a little less empty. It had the barracks, which were empty, the infirmary, which was empty, and the cafeteria, which would have been empty. But DarkMigit wandered in and stood at the counter trying to find the Double-Double animal style on the menu for ten minutes.
"IT HAS TO BE THERE!" DarkMigit was yelling as loud as he could.
Vader grabbed his shoulder and shook him, "Its OK.... we'll get that later"
They continued to walk on. After much getting lost they had made their way to the sector three door.
"I can't open it," said DarkMigit
"Why not? Your little gizmo got us this far," said Albert
"Because the security lockouts here are much tougher," said Vader twiddling a small plastic card between his fingers.
"What's that?" asked DarkMigit
"Its something I got off D'artagnan when the prophecy was fulfilled," said Vader
"Well, it looks like it should go in that slot there," said DarkMigit pointing at a panel next to the door.
Vader walked over and put the card into the slot. The thing hummed for a little and with a beep the door hissed and began to slide open.
"So it's a key," said Vader, "I think that we can use this."
Vader pocketed the card and the three passed through the door into the final room. The room was a rectangle, with two doors along the left side and one on the right. They walked over to the closest one on the left.
"It won't open," said Vader pushing the door as hard a he could.
"I guess the power to the doors has been cut," said DarkMigit
"Then how do we open them?" asked Albert
"We need to re-initialize the router at the reactor," said DarkMigit
"And where is that?" asked Albert looking from side to side
"Behind you," said Vader pointing to the door along the other wall with a sign above reading, "Reactor Lab"
"Yeah.... I knew that," said Albert as he walked to the door, which was a little bit ajar.
"Sure you did," said DarkMigit sarcastically, "And I'm Robin Hood."
DarkMigit walked up and grabbed the door and shoved it open.
"Thank you for being ajar!" he said as they walked into the hallway.
At the end of the hall was a reactor core that still appeared to be working. DarkMigit walked through a doorway to the right about half way down the hall. Inside were panels and busses with wires streaming everywhere. Some disconnected, some sparking, some still working all right.
"I guess that something bad happened," said Albert
"I guess so," said DarkMigit as he walked over and began to mess with the wires.
They spent some time waiting while DarkMigit plugged wires in here and there. Once his cloak even caught fire and he ran around doing stop drop and roll while Albert laughed and Vader tried to stomp on it. After all that DarkMigit couldn't get it to work.
"This worked well...." said Albert
"Shut up," mumbled DarkMigit as he kicked one of the boxes.
A couple of lights lit up on one of the panels and the door power light flickered on.
"See! I told you I could get it," said DarkMigit to Albert
"So do you kick all of your inventions when they don't work?" asked Albert
"I said shut up," said DarkMigit as they left the room and went back to the first door on the left, which opened as they stepped up to it. Beyond the door was a small room with a few labs leading off. They were all empty, but one stood out from the rest as it was completely charred and destroyed.
"I wonder what happened there," said Vader.
"One of the experiments got out of control I guess," said Albert
"No kidding," said DarkMigit, "But there's no weapo-.... I mean stuff.... here. Lets try the other door."
They went back to the main room and tried the second door on the left wall. Behind it was another small rectangular room, much like the last. But this time there were only two small labs on the left wall, and a door on the right, which DarkMigit was very interested in.
"These labs are empty too!" said Vader, "There just nothing here."
"Uh...." said Albert, "Vader, could you help? I can't get him to stop drooling."
DarkMigit was standing in front of a door with a large sign above, which read, "Armory"
"Can we go in?" asked DarkMigit
"Uh.... sure," said Vader.
Vader used the card key again to open the door. But when they went inside there wasn't anything there.
"All.... gone....NOOOOO!" shouted DarkMigit as he began to cry.
"Its ok man," said Vader.
"No its not! All the weapons are G-O-N-E, GONE," said DarkMigit
"I guess someone took all the stuff," said Albert
But DarkMigit had stopped crying. He looked up at a door on the other side of the armory that was really big.
"OPEN IT!" said DarkMigit
"OK. Let's see," said Vader inserting the card once more.
The door opened and inside was a large assembly of coils and wires all sitting on a complex frame of steel.
"What is it?" asked Albert
"It's an assembly of a capitol ship cannon," said DarkMigit
"Oh....." said Vader
"But it looks incomplete to me," said DarkMigit
"Well, I guess that's it huh," said Vader
"I guess," said DarkMigit
"Let's go," said Albert
They exited to the main chamber of sector three once more. But as they were about to leave DarkMigit noticed a small hole in the floor on the wall opposite the exit.
"What's that?" asked DarkMigit as he began to run towards it.
"What's what?" asked Vader as he began to follow him.
"That hole over there," said DarkMigit as he reached the hole.
They all looked down. It was a ladder leading down onto a catwalk in what appeared to be a very large room. As they climbed down the ladder they saw that the catwalk was about two floors off the ground, with another floor of room above it and another ladder leading down to the floor. On the other side of the catwalk was a door with a sign above that read, "Computer Core". But no one looked at that; they were more interested in the very large blast doors at the other end of the great hall.
"What's behind that?" asked Vader
"I don't know. This isn't even on the map," said DarkMigit
"Then that means" began Albert but DarkMigit finished his sentence, "That whatever's in there he really wanted hidden."
"But what could it be?" asked Vader
"I don't even see a reader for the card," said DarkMigit
"Then how do we get in?" asked Vader
"I don't know," said DarkMigit with a concerned look on his face, "But let's look at the computer core."
"Yeah. Maybe there are some answers there."
All three went over to the door. Vader stuck the card into the slot and the door slid open.
They entered a small, circular room, with lit floors, a computer node on the left side, and a door across from them. But like the blast doors, this one had no key slot.
"So now what?" asked Albert.
"Uh....." fumbled DarkMigit for a moment
On the other side of the door was more of the same. A large room, several stories high, with a ledge carved out along one wall. At one end of this ledge was a door. Then there was a loud crack as the door split into a thousand pieces that flew in every direction. DarkMigit was standing there with his palm raised.
"See! That wasn't so bad. Was it?" he asked turning around to see Albert lying on the ground face first with his hands over his head.
"NOT SO BAD!? YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN US KILLED!" yelled Albert at the top of his lungs.
But the other two just ignored him and stepped into the next room.
Inside they turned and they're jaws dropped. In the center of the room was a gigantic machine. On the floor below was a pool of shallow water. Rising out of the water was a pillar of glowing, blue semi-circles. Each semi-circle was hovering above the last and facing in the opposite direction. But what was strangest was at the top of the pillar. Floating above the pillar was a translucent, aqua colored plate. It was not too thick, but was big enough around to fit a crowd of at least four hundred people.
"What the heck is that?" asked Albert in a rather small voice.
"I guess it's the computer core," said DarkMigit turning back toward the door they entered, "Hey! There's a ladder going up to the plate."
"What?" asked Vader, but DarkMigit was already climbing the ladder.
"Whoa!" exclaimed DarkMigit about halfway up.
"What is it?" asked Albert
"Its weird there's a bunch of tiny channels in the thing. And there's something flowing inside," said DarkMigit.
And he was right. Inside the plate were tiny hexagonal ducts, with a green, liquid like substance flowing in them. The hexagons were about as big around as a person, and they all were flickering on and off.
"I guess this is the processor or something," said DarkMigit as he climbed back down the ladder.
"Weird. It's not like any technology that I've ever seen," said Vader
"Yeah. But there's nothing left here to see. Let's leave. This place gives me the chills," said Albert shivering slightly.
"OK," said DarkMigit
They walked out the door, or what used to be a door, and past the computer. But once they were past the first door it hissed shut behind them.
"What the...." said Albert
"The card key isn't working," said Vader
"Weird..." said DarkMigit
But just then the huge blast doors ahead began to open slowly.
"Did you do something?" asked Vader looking at DarkMigit
"I didn't. I already told you there was nothing I could do," answered DarkMigit
They all climbed down the ladder to the floor below. They walked quickly up to the doors.
"What's that?" asked Albert pointing ahead
Just beyond where the blast doors had opened there was a corpse lying on the ground. Albert walked up to it.
"He's dead.... whoever he is," said Albert
"What's that?" asked DarkMigit pointing to a small black device on the mans belt
"It appears to be a recorder," said Albert activating it.
From the device bellowed a voice, trying to whisper, that was most likely the man's voice.
"Open personal log. I know that we are down here while everyone is fighting so we can get some of this stuff and leave. We got the weapons; they will make a good profit. But I thought that I should take a look down here anyway. I had to take cover a bit ago. There are these huge blast doors here. But I can't find a way to open them. I just saw this guy, looked like a dinosaur. He got the doors open, I don't know how, but he couldn't open the door beyond it."
The three looked up, and sure enough there was a small flight of stairs leading up to a single door on the wall.
"He tried just opening it, and then he used this lightning stuff. It was crazy, but he couldn't even touch the door. He seemed like he was putting everything he had into it too. But I tried later. Sure enough it is sealed tight. Whatever's in there is meant to stay in there. I just wonder wha-"
Other voiced yelling loudly interrupted the voice.
"THERE'S ONE!"
"GET HIM!"
The mans voice yelled out:
"Cra-"
There was a lone blaster shot heard. Then the other voices came on.
"Got him."
"Looks like he was recording."
"Turn it"
There was a loud hiss heard
"The doors are closing!?"
"Just turn it off and lets leave!"
The recording ended there.
The three looked at each other.
"That's one tough door," said Vader after a few moments of silence.
"Yeah. And a dinosaur guy? Sounds like either Behmiel or Barney to me," said DarkMigit.
"And we know that they were at least competent in the force," added Albert
They all stood up and walked to the foot of the stairs.
"I can't sense anything beyond it," said Vader.
"Ysalamiri?" asked Albert.
"No.... somehow it's different."
"Weird," said DarkMigit
He walked up the stairs to the door. Then in a second he reached out and touched the door. There was a loud crack and lightning flying around, then a flash of light.
"Shadow?" said Vader running up the stairs with Albert close behind.
"I'm okay, I think," answered DarkMigit lying on the floor.
The spot where he had touched the door was smoking. There was a loud "Click" from the door and it slid open.
"What did you do?" asked Albert
"Nothing..." said DarkMigit getting up a little shaken.
"Whatever you did, it worked," said Vader.
They walked slowly through the door into the room beyond. There was a fairly thick pillar rising a few floors up with a spiral staircase wrapped around it.
"These walls, and the back of the door, are made of the same stuff as that computer plate," said DarkMigit.
And indeed they were. The walls, door, and ceiling were concrete with a thick layer of the translucent material on top. The material had the channels of green stuff flowing within it.
"I guess we should go to the top," said Albert.
"I guess so," said DarkMigit
They began to climb the spiral stairs. The whole way Vader kept asking what it was that kept him from sensing within the room. But as they reached the top they stopped.
"I think that could...." said DarkMigit in a solemn tone.
He took a few steps toward the center of the pillar. There in the center was a small pedestal made of four posts. Above the posts was hovering a small, clear crystal. And flowing from the crystal was a stream of the green, fluid down between the posts into a hole in the pillar.
DarkMigit reached out and grabbed the crystal.
"I didn't even believe they even existed!" exclaimed Albert
"Of course they exist," said DarkMigit, "But they aren't supposed to be here."
Vader just sat there for a second looking between the two. Then he said, "Would somebody mind telling me what is going on?"
DarkMigit just walked up to him and handed him the crystal. Then he turned to Albert and said, "You know about it?"
"Yes," said Albert looking at him.
"Then tell Vader what's going on," said DarkMigit as he walked away, "I must go away."
"Shadow..." said Vader
"Oh!" said DarkMigit pausing in his descent down the stairs with Vader following behind, "I almost forgot to tell you. Guard that with you life."
Just stopped and looked a DarkMigit as he walked out the door and out of sight.
"I think I should tell you what's going on," said Albert, "But first let's get back to the surface."
