1:4:10 Crait (Part 3)

Char hadn’t even realised they had left the ship. She and Charrlene now found themselves choking in The Slingshot’s courtyard. With a wave of her wrist, the door in front of them opened. Spluttering, they stepped into the recycled air and exhaled what remained of the nebula from their healing lungs.
“Sir!” Aloe lowered her pistol as she went to greet Charrlene. “You should have let us know you were coming down. We would have deactivated the nebula.”
Charrlene looked the trooper up and down. “There’s something different about your armour…”
“Ah, yes.” Aloe fiddled with her wrist’s colour mixer. “Better?” The Aegean returned to its original green.
She shrugged. “I think I preferred it the other way. That’s a lovely shade of blue.”
“It’s the same as her Lore’s clones.” Aloe nodded to Char. “Where are they anyway?”
Char froze.
“We’re working on it.” Charrlene stepped in. “How quickly can you lower the nebula?”
Aloe looked to Ace, knowing they heard the question too. Ace nodded. “We’re ready as soon as you want us to be.”
“It’ll take time to fully dissipate. Get the process started.” Charrlene patted Aloe on the shoulder as she reached for her communicator. “And well done. I’m proud of you.”
“Thank you sir.” Aloe raised her communicator to her mouth. “Magpie, Blindside, you two ready to go?”
“We’ve been ready for the last three hours!” Blindside shouted back.
“Order’s come through. Get the nebula gone.” Aloe smiled as she gave the order.
“Sir.” Ace approached Char. “We’ve encountered an unexpected problem…” They gestured to the four Temporal Sciences officers in the corner. “They’ve been here for the last ten years.” The officers gave an awkward wave.
“Ah.” Charrlene just stared at them.
“Magpie’s saying The Slingshot needs to warm up for five minutes then the nebula should be gone.” Aloe passed on the update.
“Right… Five minutes to decide what to do with that lot…” Charrlene didn’t look as sure of herself as she had when they first entered the building. “Charrlene to Razor. I want every clone planet side. I want the whole campus secured and any messes cleaned up and I want Tree and their unit with me as soon as possible, if not sooner.”
“Orders confirmed sir.”A Lore replied.
A flash of light outside heralded the arrival of Tree. Two clones on each flank, they advanced on The Slingshot and opened the door for their commander.
“Right then, where do you need me… What in the hel are they doing here?” Tree’s accent was stronger than Char had expected.
“They are the reason you’re here.” Charrlene pointed to the Guild members. “You’re going to take them back to The Razor and make sure they’re well looked after.” Tree looked offended.
“You want me to baby sit some prisoners?” Tree gestured for their troopers to collect the prisoners. “Anything else while I’m at it? You want me to clean them up?”
“Good point. Make sure they’ve got access to a proper bed and bathroom.” Charrlene smiled. “There’s a good Lore, thinking on their feet.” She patted them on the shoulder. “Okay, Ace, over here.”
“Sir.” Ace stood to attention.
“Once the nebula’s gone, the Lores are going to descend. I want you and your unit to check over the structural integrity of The Slingshot’s towers to make sure they’re ready for the disassembly protocols.” Charrlene waited for Ace to react. “Right… The tower we’re in is actually a protective shell around the main towers. It’s designed to fall apart once we’re ready to use it. You need to inspect the site to make sure there’s nothing to obstruct the process.”
“Yes sir.” Ace moved away and started talking over their comms.

They waited in the darkness of space. The countdown timer on their ship’s viewscreen neared zero. They hadn’t even bothered to enter the nebula knowing its reputation for trapping ships; they had lost at least one crew to its density. They sat back and waited. A flash of white filled the corner of their eye; two figures emerged from it. They took the chairs either side of their commanding officer. The timer flashed red. It pulsed four times. The patient figure rose from their middle chair and, as the fourth pulse flared, they pointed at the nebula. As if obeying their cue, it vanished. Once hidden by gasses and plasma, a sprinkling of debris was all that stood between them and their target. With a nod, their ship was set in motion.

Ace, Curve and Midpoint moved quickly, inspecting every panel and connector to ensure that, once activated, The Slingshot would be able to safely shed its protective cocoon. The other clones had their own jobs but the Lores who gave them seemed to have forgotten how small The Slingshot actually was when it was actually inhabited. Still, they muddled through.
Internal inspection completed, Ace checked their wrist mounted computer to see the countdown Magpie had set in motion. “We’ve only got just under a minute before the nebula should have dissipated. It should be clear enough outside by now for us to begin checking out there.”
Curve and Midpoint nodded as they started down the last flight of stairs to the ground floor. They crossed the floor and opened the door only to be hit by the nebula’s gasses trying to enter the building once again. Ace slammed it shut but made sure to put themselves between their fellow clones and the gasses.
They double checked their wrist. “There’s barely fifteen seconds left.” They looked puzzled. “It’s not changed.” They opened the door but only barely. A sliver of the outside could be seen. Ace split their attention between the sliver and their wrist as they counted down the seconds until the timer reached zero. The moment it did, the door slammed shut. Ace wrenched it back open as quickly as possible but not fast enough as, by the time they had, the nebula was nowhere to be seen; stolen at the countdown’s end. Confusion reigned. Ace closed the door then opened it again and still, the nebula was gone. The Occam’s razor loomed overhead, casting a pair of shadows across the war-torn campus. It looked worse than it had when they arrived. Energy blasts and the nebula had torn away at the building; the skeleton crew’s corpses didn’t help. Intermingled with the clones, Amalgam units helped clear and sweep the area immediately surrounding The Slingshot but neither group touched the campus’ main building. Ace left first and confirmed that the air was indeed breathable before they allowed any of their siblings to exit The Slingshot.
“Okay, I’ll go left, you two go right. We’ll wrap around the ground floor then work out how we’re supposed to do the rest later.” They nodded. Curve and Midpoint responded likewise before they went their separate ways.
Slowly, both groups inspected the panels in their immediate eyeline as they walked around the building. Eventually, they met, awkwardly shuffling around one another, before double checking the other party’s work. Curve and Midpoint finished their checks first so waited for Ace by the doors.
“How do you reckon we’re going to check the rest?” Curve looked up at the multi-storey structure.
Midpoint just shrugged.
“Exactly. It’s not like any of us can fly. Magpie could probably do it with that eye of his but I can’t see us doing it without it being an absolute pain.” Curve shook her head.
Midpoint nodded. “Perhaps it doesn’t matter.”
“You’ve got a point there.” Curve thought about it. “Maybe because we’ve checked the inside, the outside’s automatically alright too.”
Ace rounded the corner and jogged back to meet them. “You two not find anything?”
“Nope. Panels all look like they’re ready to fall off in a safe and controlled manner.” Curve chuckled. “It’s kind of strange checking to see if something’s ready to fall apart.”
“I know. I don’t know why they didn’t just make the walls retractable or something. Still, I think everything was fine.” Ace was about to propose a way to scale the building but was cut short.

A pair of shadows crossed the compound, appropriately chilling the area to fit the newcomer; all except the Amalgam looked up at whatever was casting them. A geometric mess of angles and planes loomed overhead. Thousands of guns flickered to life in a deadly wave of activation and aimed themselves at The Slingshot. It was just a few metres bigger The Occam’s Razor beside it but had it outgunned significantly. As soon as their eyes could focus on it, Ace and their unit recognised the ship immediately.
“Simplicity.” They shook their head.
“But…” Curve couldn’t manage anything more.
A swarm of drones seeped from its flanks, positioning themselves between The Slingshot and Simplicity. Though small individually, they successfully blotted out both ships, creating a rectangle of black space above the campus. One by one, they lit up. The drones each illuminated white to start but that changed when Crait took the stage. Their face spanned across the screen, their smug grin nearly a hundred metres wide. A high pitch whine rained down on them as the microphone was calibrated to mitigate feedback before Crait began their speech properly.
They waited for it to die down before talking. “Greetings Lores and Clones. Hello!” They waved. “We all know why we’re here… Actually, for the first time, you don’t!” Crait’s smug smile became raucous laughter. They let out a whoop of excitement. “We’re treading new ground here!” They looked around their bridge and saw that they were the only one excited. “Fine.” They sighed. “I’ve never actually seen this bit. I knew it had to exist but I’ve never actually been to The fabled Slingshot… It’s a little underwhelming. I do have to thank you though; without your nebula trapping my Inquisitor, I’d have never known where this place was.”
The First looked around at everyone present. “Get me Tree.” They muttered to Charrlene who subsequently vanished. “Crait… You haven’t aged a day… Well, not aged a day since you turned forty.”
Crait shook their head with a sly smile. “Oh, you’re trying to rile me up… Not going to let you.” They chuckled. “How about you and I have a little chat. You can bring your new pet Lore too. I’ll send the co-ordinates.”
The First looked to Char and nodded. They checked their Breacher and saw the string of numbers they had been sent. They quickly checked where they led. “You’re closer than I thought you would be.”
“Simplicity is much more adaptable than her size would suggest.” Crait swivelled in their chair. “I told you she was rated for high atmospheric stuff.” They shook their head. “Honestly. You can’t get the staff these days. I’m supposed to have the best of the best and well, you’ve met the Thirty-Second… I wouldn’t mind if it were only the odd few units but its almost as if every third or fourth Inquisitoriam is absolutely useless. You can keep them by the way, for now. I really am in no hurry to get bloody Tadi back and I know you’re going to take care of him… Especially after your last encounter…” They smirked and winked. “I will have Rach back though; if you could bring her with you, that would be excellent. She’s going places.” Crait muttered something to an officer off screen. “I’m being advised that just asking for one officer back and not the commander would be a bad idea so don’t bother, you look after the crew and then, when we leave, you can just give them back then. I’ll just see you and your newest Lore in… Two minutes.”
The First looked to Char and smiled. She didn’t know why until Crait spoke again.
“Three minutes and forty seconds… Four minutes… Just get here now and stop pissing about!” Crait sighed. The First laughed.
Neither of them spoke. They both knew where they’d inevitably end up so they decided to get it over with. The First took Charrlene’s hand and gestured for her to grab Char’s. All linked, they activated their Breacher.