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It is dark
and quiet, no sounds can be heard, all is peaceful. Suddenly he wakes
up from a dream unremembered, feeling
startled he checks the time, "Too early" he
says to himself and pulling off the bed sheets he notices the clock. Nearly
five more hours until the
sun rises. He stands and walks over to the sink to wash
some cold water on his face.
As he looks in the mirror he notices the lack
of lines on his face concealing his age,
his hands tell a different story, careworn and callused with large knuckles
and wrinkled palms they bespeak
an eternity of hard work and strife. His life is relatively uninteresting,
friends and love have come and gone, many of his old friends are no
longer living. He reflects on the past
and decides to stop, knowing what a bad idea it is Now
wide awake he learns why he is standing here as the pain crackles into
his head again. This is the same
sensation that must have woken him up. He cups his hands to his ears
and bows his head with a wince, it is a
message, a distant pitiful cry for help.
Has it been so long since he had last been called? Perhaps,
but all time is relative to your
point in space. At one time all matter, time and space was one singularity.
Time has marched on spreading matter
and space everywhere to the infinite reaches of universe within
universe. He reached for a hidden panel on the wall and pressed it to
reveal a narrow opening into a room
that was hidden from view. As he stepped inside a cold light came
on, he walked over to the slipgate and pushed the lever over with his
right foot. With a low-pitched hum
the slipgate engine started to warm up the device.
The ancients,
for travel from one place to another, designed the Slipgates. Most of
them are gone now but in the vicinity of
an active defender a few remain. The device looks much
like an anvil with a hammer poised above it ready to strike. They are
capable of travel in this world
and interdimensionally to all points where there are other slipgates in
use. Made with a dark hard material
that has the appearance of rusted iron this one stands ten feet tall
and dominates the small hidden room. Over
on the wall is a cabinet with a control pad next to it. On
the control pad are buttons and levers labeled in a forgotten script.
He opened the cabinet and pulled
out an old heavy dark green jump suit with many flapped pockets. He put
his legs into the suit and pulled
it up to his shoulders. He zipped the center zipper and put on his harness
and pack. Then he reached for the weapons
of his calling, first he grabbed a two handed mattock that
had seen battle before, as was indicated by the notches in the blades
of the two headed battle axe that
come from steel neck collar damage. Next he picked up two shotguns each
of a different design for distance
shots and close combat. He fitted the guns into matching worn leather
holsters on the side of his pack. Last he took his favorite weapon from
it's case against the wall. It was
matte black, a very clean rocket propelled grenade launcher. As he groped
around in the half-light of the room he
found that he had only one clip of four grenades for the
launcher. It would have to do; maybe he would find some unused ammo on
the other side.
With a short high pitched tone the slipgate indicated
its readiness. He manipulated the control panel
and double checked his gear, he was ready. He pulled the final lever and
stepped onto the anvil anticipating
the bone jarring crunch of interdimensional travel. The countdown had
begun, he looked up at the hammer
and closed his eyes, preparing for the blinding flash of light associated
with being in two places at the same moment in time.
With a lurch he stumbled forward a pace or two
as he arrived at the destination that had called him.
It was a good thing that the slipgates threw you off as you arrived, he
had heard of men being teleported
into one another and of the resulting implosion. "No way for a defender
to die" he thought grimly to himself.
He took a look around at his surroundings and noticed a smell. No noise,
how strange. He walked into the corridor
adjacent to this alternate slipgate room and saw them. Five
members of Clan Destiny lay dead at his feet. As they were lying there
he knew that they hadn't been there
for long. When dead you will teleport back to your point of origin in
five minutes right where you lay.
Knowing time was of the essence he reached down for the nearest ammo pack,
and just in the nick of time. As
he pulled it from the body, the clansman grew dim and disappeared with
the small pop of the air rushing in to
fill the space where before had been a body. As he watched he saw
them one by one disappear. He could only hope this man had not had a chance
to exhaust his ammo supply before
he died. His heart leapt as he opened the pack to find fifty unused rocket
propelled grenades. What luck, now to explore
the fortress and try to make some sense of what had
happened here.
He searched from room to room, apparently he
had arrived in the lower levels of the fortress and
was working his way upstairs. He came across more bodies and debris of
battle and finally found what
he was looking for. One of the clansmen had been carved in the way of
The Order. He knew these sons of
evil and didn't relish the thought of having to deal with them alone.
He found the altar and the place
where the clan's talisman had stood for untold centuries, it was gone
This did not relieve him of his
duty, for thousands of years the defenders have protected the helpless
from evil. The pact was simple and brooked no variation from the law.
If defense is impossible, vengeance
is the responsibility of the defender who is summoned. He clenched his
teeth as a cold grim look began to appear
on his face. He ran to the armory, here the last battle had
been fought. The door was jammed, with a mighty heave he forced the massive
timber structure in as the hinges
creaked. "Ahh" He said, as he found what he needed. An entire and
undamaged full body jerkin of electromagnetic
armor. He put it on and stepped out of the room.
"Now it is time." He growled as he marched to the upper parapets for a
good outside view.
As he neared the top of the stairs and approached the
final ramp to the highest battlements
he could hear sounds. He walked
up to the wall with caution and pulled his
scope from his pack. He pointed
the scope in the direction of the noise and to his
dismay he saw a lone survivor wearing
clan colors surrounded by ten or so members
of The Order. As he watched they emptied the
contents of their railguns into
the poor lone clansman and one of them carved their hideous symbol
into his forehead. They laughed as they
walked into the distant fortress and disappeared from
sight.
He was filled with rage as he prepared for his
task, "So there are at least ten of
them" He said as he grimaced. "Well
they aren't counting on my visit". At least surprise
would be in his favor. He scanned
the opposing battlements for snipers and
seeing none he rappelled down the battlements
of stone. "There is no telling what
damage they could do with the talisman in their possession"
He thought to himself. Taking
advantage of the natural cover he made his way to the
fortress of steel and
hid by the side door. Near him was the dead clansman, he reached
the man's
pack and found two timer controlled nail grenades. "These will come
in handy" he said as he entered
the building.
No one was inside the door as they appeared to
be in the distance by the sounds
of laughter he could hear. He stopped
at the turn to the ramp, which led to the
dungeon and under a staircase he
noticed a figure dressed much like himself with
a single finger to his mouth indicating his wish to go
quietly unnoticed. The figure then
pointed to a dark corner across the room, in that corner was another
dressed in the same garb. He focused his ID device on each of them in
turn and found them to
be defenders that he had known long ago. It had been so long since
he had seen them, and it was rumored
that they had died together in another dimension,
he could hardly believe his eyes.
Not much could stand
between a well prepared defender and his goal, with three of them
the foundation of the universe would
quake. They entered the ramp in formation, a group of defenders
like this had not been seen together for
eons. As they reached the bottom
of the ramp they took flanking positions
against the wall. In the end of
the hallway was a light coming from a dimly lit room. In it could be
seen several of
the enemy crouching over their booty. They approached the room
with absolute stealth and quietly
took their positions on either side of the door. Our
defender took the two nail grenades from
his pack and armed them. He counted down,
five, four, three and throw. He stepped in front of
the door just so as to be out of
the way of the debris path of the exploding grenades. As the group
inside the room noticed what was happening
they attempted to flee and as they came
out the three defenders
set upon them with the fury of an avalanche of chainsaws".
In less than one minute it was over,
in the midst of the carnage stood the
three heroes among the bodies
of fourteen members of The Order. As they left
they put the place to the torch and damaged
the enemy slipgate beyond repair.
They made their way back to the fortress and down to
the slipgate room. After
a short conversation they prepared the slipgate for travel and bid each
other farewell.
As they approached the anvil Saxon the
defender said to his companions Cisco
and Sheepman "until the next
time".
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