Chapter 189: One Hundred Sixty Nine Part 2

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Terra

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Terra looked at the wall she made, and almost wasn’t able to keep the grin of her face. She just couldn’t believe that her idea worked! It was a gamble, but she had sent Jessie and Dalila down into the ship after the cable they needed. All she could do was hope that they could handle the beasts before they could break through. Thankfully, the shield was a good five feet in front of the shield, and that was good. Once the shield was back up, she could reinforce it if it fell. With her new powers, they could protect the capsule!

But as the ice wall shook again, Terra winced. Something was telling her that it might fall before too long. So without even thinking, she fired again, aiming at the ground a foot closer to the shield. Where she hit, pillars of ice grew at an angle, hitting the wall and reinforcing it. She panted and felt the heat within her pulse for a second, then it grew back. She almost jumped when someone put a hand on her right shoulder. She looked to see Zevortro looking her right in the eyes.

“Nice job.,” Zevortro said with a firm tone, smiling at her.

“Yeah, but this won’t keep them out. They’re not going to stop. We’re going to need to kill more of them,” Terra said bitterly.

“We will. Still can’t believe that you were able to do that boss!” Bryke said with a laugh from behind her.

“Same. I mean. I’ve got no idea just how I was able to do that. It’s almost like magic!” Terra said as she looked at the wall before she pushed down her pride. “But we need to talk, just what happened here?”

“Craziest thing I ever saw. There we were, just standing there. Then those things charged at us,” Zevortro said with a shudder. “They were unlike anything I ever saw before, all those muscles just charging at us screaming.”

“Yeah! I mean nova! We just started to fire, but it did nothing! They just kept coming even after we hit their heads,” Bryke said bitterly. At her look of doubt, Bryke only glared at her. “And I’m a good shot. I know I hit the head. It was like they had armor or something. Finally Ol’Z here said to fire at the legs. We brought the front down, and then we could just hit their bodies. They died and then the others fell back. I mean, I’ve never seen waves like that.”

“Yeah. That’s something else, the wave attack. I’ve dealt with a bot wave once, impossible to no be scared but at…… wait!” Terra said as something that they said suddenly registered in her mind. But she had to have misheard them, there was no way! “Wait, you killed five of them!? Andd there were at least made How many of them were there total!?”

“Twenty of them. I know, big group right?” Bryke said with a hard edge.

Terra didn’t even look at him, instead she slowly looked at one of the groups she had killed. One of the bodies was partly in the wall, sticking out it. She looked at it and then went over what she had seen. What she had killed. She rent over everything that she knew, and then she swallowed. “This is insane!”

“What? What do you mean!?” Zevortro demanded, sense the shock and fear in her voice.

She looked at them and then took a deep breath. “Total, there were at least thirty of them attacking us. We killed maybe half of them, maybe more? Any group that takes a third of their numbers in loses always retreats. Thinking and wild creatures. The only reason that they don’t , is because they didn’t lose that percent of their numbers. That means, they have a lot more than just thirty.”

Zevortro took a step back, his eyes unfocused as he took in her words. “That group, it must have been the vanguard. When they broke through, the rest of them were probably going to come to secure the kills, us!”

Another roar echoed from behind the wall, and then they heard the sound of something slamming. Terra winced as she saw the wall shake for a moment. She couldn’t understand, just how much were those things going to do to get around it? Just what had set this off?

“We really need that shield back up, now!” Zevortro said with a hard edge to his voice.

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“Yeah, where are those two? I mean…. Their gone! Did they run off!?” Bryke snarled.

Terra winced and sighed. “No, they’re getting what they need to get the shield up.”

“What the Nova?! What do they need?! They didn’t need anything to set it up the first time!” Bryke said as he looked at her.

She looked him right in the eye and sighed. “Well, that time, we didn’t have something trying to hack into the network.”

Bryke and Zevortro only stared at him, shock in their gazes.

“Are you messing with me!?” Bryke demanded as he looked at her. “Who or what could be trying to get into the system?!?”

“Do we have any idea who or what could be doing this?” Zevortro asked softly.

“None. We’re going the safe way to get it up. Hopefully, this will work,” Terra admitted.

Before anyone could say anything else, something happened. Suddenly, they all heard the more roars and new screams came from the other side of the ice wall.

“What the stars is that!?” Bryke demanded as they all looked at the wall.

Terra felt her heart freeze as everything suddenly made sense. The thought she had, it explained everything about the bear things. All the questions that she had about the attack were answered, but she didn’t want these answers. She swallowed, and then she gave voice to what she had figured out. “I think that’s why those things were so enraged to take this place. They wanted the shield to protect themselves from the screamers. They were running from them!”

“Oh, what is that fool doing now!?” Zevortro asked suddenly asked as he looked around.

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Dalila

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They entered the capsule swiftly despite the shouted questions thrown at them. They quickly moved to the storage area, not bothering to answer anything. Once there, Dalila looekd around and saw what they had found the generators in.

“So it has to be here, right?” Dalila asked with wonder as she looked around the packed room.

Jessie only snorted and shook his head. “If we’re lucky. For all we know, some lawyer decided to sell them separately to make a credit!”

Dalila only giggled a bit, remembering a few people she had run into over the years. Without a word, they went to work. After a few moments, they found the an invoice that said the cables were in another box, and what markings were on it. With that, the two looked at each other, went to opposite sides of the room and went to work.

After a few minutes, Dalila started to wonder why they even had to do this. Where had the hacker come from? It had to be hidden somewhere close, but who? Any other survivors would have made contact, none of this hacking into the system. they would have announced themselves, and then they would have helped them. There had to be space here for them, so why were they trying to kill them?

“Any luck?” Jessie asked.

Dalila snorted and she sighed. “No, I’ll work toward the door, you work towards the back. This is insane!”

“Yeah, I just don’t get it. Where did they come from? Why can’t we see them? What kind of cloaking tech was in their capsule?” Jessie asked in anger.

Dalila nodded as she tried to think how this was possible. Everything was insane, just how could anything try and hack into the network!? It had to be something close, but there was nothing! The monsters out in the forest would have attacked anything that moved, so how?

“How are they hiding? Yeah, or what’s changed here? ” Dalila asked herself. Then she went still, and stared into space. The words she had spoken reverberated in her minds. Something about that made her pause, and think. There was only one answer that fit, but was it possible? If they couldn’t get in…… no. There was no way that was what this was. That would mean that there was. That below them was.

“Found it! Let’s get this up there and get to work!” Jessie said holding up a large bag a few feet wide. He laughed a little as he walked towards the door. “This thing has to be long enough to reach the other stations! And there are more! We can turn all of them into a closed circlet! Thiss way those people won’t be able to……..”

Dalila ignored Jessie, staring into space. The reality that she had reasoned out was something that she hadn’t wanted to. But it fit, and it explained everything. As much a she didn’t’ want to , she had to confront it.

“HEY!” Jessie’ss yell caused her to look up. Jessie was there, looking at her with worry on his face. “You okay?”

“Yeah, for now. We need to get that shield up now!” Dalila said as she led the way out of the room.

As they moved towards the doorway leading out, they ran into trouble. Ahead of them, a group of five of the passengers were standing in there. At their head, Jones was standing there.

“What is happening up there!?” Jones demanded, anger in his voice.

Dalila looked at them, and at Leonator with a glare. They didn’t need this right now, they had to move! Before she could say anything, Jessie stepped forward.

“The shield is down, and we need to put it back up. This is what’s needed, so either get out of our way or I’ll move you,” Jessie said with a growl as he took a step forward.

“How dare you!?” Jones snarled as he looked at Jessie with a glare. “That’s the problems with muscle heads like you, always using force! If there’s something attacking us, then we needed to be kind! Those creatures are just scared, we must be better!”

“That’s enough!” Duncan’s voice roared out.

They all looked and saw both Bradford and Duncan standing there, a look of rage on Duncan’s face.

“Jones! I’ve had it up to here with you! I….. I don’t know what!” Duncan said and then Bradford stepped between them.

“Sir, let me. I’ll talk to him. I think he’ll act more respectful to a former senator,” Bradford said with a wide smile.

Duncan looked at Bradford for a long moment that stretched on. With a shallow nod, he looked at Jones. “Jones, this is your last chance. I want you to move now. Those people are getting the shield back up. Without it, those things that that you want to treat kindly will kill us.”

Jones tuned his head to look at Duncan. Dalila stared at him, and she saw his body language. Her eyes went wide as she looked from Jones to Bradford, and she scowled.

But the people moved aside, and she and Jessie moved past them. Once they were out of the capsule and into the null gravity field, Dalila let her tension lower. There was nothing that she could do now, and she had to focus. But then they both heard roars and screams from the opening. As they reached the top, they saw the

“Here!” Jessie said as he thrust something at her.

Dalila grabbed it and saw one of the cable ends. Looking up, she saw Jessie he had the other one and was moving towards another console. “You get that connected to our problem child! I’ll put this into one of the others! With luck, we’ll have the shield up in moments!”

Dalila only nodded and flung a rope toward the ‘problem child’. Despite what she had figured out, Jessie was right. They had to handle the problem before them here and now. They could handle the threat she had found later, and she and Vivian had to put all their cards on the table.