章節 34: To Confront, Disturb, Appall
In a hollow cavern buried deep within the earth, there was a city. In the city, there was a building. Below the city and the building's internal complex, there was an isolated space of rings. Inside the innermost ring, was a chamber. And within that chamber, one occupant received a revelation, one thing he hadn't felt the need to include in his plans: someone sniffed out his tracks.
The Fifth discovering the absences of two Titans was inevitable, especially when they abandoned their patrols so close to a scheduled return to the Last Light. And once finding no orders from their ray explaining the irregularity, they would turn to the others. But that should've been where it ended; the Fifth shouldn't have been able to investigate further into the matter due to the Eighth's obstruction. As the ray held jurisdiction over domestic security and order, there was no way they would've permitted the Fifth's blatant invasion of other rays' records and data, even if they had no ulterior motives. He observed Eighth Headman in his periphery; she, like him, hadn't left the skirmishes behind when her compulsory service ended and transferred her emotions to her face without taking them for redecorating through her brain first. And on that face was an expression of profound bewilderment. So there lay the trouble: he was to believe that the Eighth hadn't even noticed the Fifth's endeavors?
"Prime Beacon?" Ch-4 gave him no time to reassemble his fracturing thoughts, repeating her query. "Please explain."
He would be happy to, ecstatic, even. This was another opportunity out of the countless they offered him on a platter in the meets all year long. All he had to do was offer a quick address, spin some story with enough truth woven between the lies to keep the cracks from showing, and save his bloc from another impending disaster threatening to shove an Aud into his plans. The issue, however, was that every word coming out of his mouth faced contention from Ch-4.
There was a reason she was the true head of the home interest rather than In-3. She had impeccable verbal ability and a rich thought process in past meets, always arriving at the end of whatever narrative he attempted to present a minute before him and dismantling it, tearing it to shreds without so much as a twitch of her cheeks. Due to the existing contention, he had been confident in winning the previous conflict over the Sixth's energy budget. At the moment, once again reminded of his dislike for humanity's cutthroat ways within the chamber, he wondered if there was truth in that belief.
She wouldn't be willing to let this one wander free. Understandable, as he would do the same in her shoes. Yet as he didn't find himself in them, he needed to deal with the unpleasantness of being on the business end of her metaphorical sonic. His eyes turned to his allies, and he didn't like what he saw. Third Headman looked up at him with an ugly expression, and Eighth Headman still wore a comical face, only now her own eyes, hard and quizzical, demanded an explanation just as much as Ch-4. Events were conspiring to leave him on his own, it seemed.
Then again, fate reserved a twisted sense of humor when dealing with him, dropping shining opportunities before him one second and attempting to induce some stoppage of his heart the next. It must've been feeling amicable toward him--that, or pitying--and an interruption sent the new regained momentum crashing before it had a chance to rise. A disturbance in the greeting space's outer rings sent echoes not belonging to the occupants of the chamber far and wide, summoning silence back. Today, unexpected silence was especially popular.
He was grateful for the chance to reorganize his thoughts without Ch-4's ruthlessness stalking him. She was of similar mind, as even while turning to wonder at the cause of the commotion out of sight, she held the same calculative light in her eyes. They weren't forced to wait long, as a trio entered, two of them chasing after the third. The one in the lead halted as he stepped across the threshold, scanning the occupants. The Prime Beacon was already out of his seat, his frown deeper than ever. He recognized the younger man. What was he--
"I apologize for overstepping my station! I came to report that the Nyx Breaker has returned from its emergency investigatory survey, and made contact with the Aud!" The frown was gone. In his mind, the Prime Beacon once again wore an Aud-worthy grin. Talk about excellent timing… "It reconnected with the transmission towers eight minutes ago and will arrive in four."
An explosion of voices better suited originating from an Aud put the earlier mixed outcries to shame, buffeting every corner of the chambers. The headmen each took turns slamming their fists against their dais or shouting to restore order, to no effect. Ch-4 was the odd one out, settling for staring him down. Her gaze almost made him shift guiltily before he steeled his body, recognizing he had nothing to do with the interruption. It just happened that the one coming to deliver news of a Titan's return came from his subordinate, Ni-6.
It could be that she did in fact want order restored, which he understood. If the Chamber of Meet's occupants were acting like monkeys beset by Aud…his frown pushed its way back to prominence. Because of this thought--at least in part, he was too preoccupied to notice he was placing too much strength into his blow. Both fists came down on his dais, completely crushing the brittle metal frame hidden within and causing the entire structure to collapse. He froze, arms still extended in a striking pose, as the chamber emptied itself of volume. He caught sight of Ch-4 bowing her head and letting her curtain of hair tumble forward to hide a smile. What made the woman so pleased?
At least no one could see the faint red on his weathered cheeks this high. He coughed and cleared his throat, pointedly angling his head higher to keep the new state of his dais out of his periphery. "Seeing as this new development falls under the First's jurisdiction, I call for an emergency suspension of the current meet so our representatives may resume their duty."
As expected, In-3 was the first to protest, with the Fourth Headman parroting every word escaping his mouth. But that was all the opposition the chamber mustered; every other headman wasted no time to enter another voting bloc and make good on his suggestion. Following adjournment, some of the aides and supporting representatives came down from their spots in the colosseum to trade notes, while the rest accompanied the direct representatives that flew out the threshold.
He had intended to pull the headmen of the Third and Eighth aside for a private discussion, but the Sixth beat him to it, striding into the middle of his surrounding entourage and grabbing his arm. "You will meet with me later." It was neither a question nor a request.
"Naturally. My office or yours?"
Sixth Headman avoided tripping and lost some of the heat in his eyes, unprepared for how quick the other man was to concede. "Oh…your office, I suppose."
"I'm meeting with the Nyx Breaker's sitesman first." He turned away at that, abandoning the conversation to make his way out of the Chamber of Meet. Ni-6 caught up, falling into line beside him and reading through something projected by his HUD, eyes dancing across empty air. Despite this, he kept a measured and balanced base, avoiding walking into others. "Any news?"
"Much. I figured I'd wait until you could hear it on your own, or else the others would never let you leave. You looked to be in trouble, sir."
"Much," he repeated with practiced humor. When Ni-6 adopted a quizzical look, he elaborated. "The Fifth found who was behind the Dervish's Gale and Flux Monolith's rerouting and subsequent vanishing." Given the Aud had already entered the walls, he felt no inhibitions discussing the details out in the open.
"Why were they able to do that, sir? Wasn't the Eighth onto them?""I'll give you the details later. Send something to the headmen of the Third and Eighth too; I want to explain some things, and some things explained to me." Like how the Fifth managed this with the militarists being none the wiser. "What can you tell me about the investigation?"
"About that…"
"You should finish that sentence."
"Yes, sir. You see…Fort Io is no more."
By then, they had escaped the depths underneath Ardiseg Hall and were in the hall connected to his office. It elongated before his eyes, and he couldn't turn his head to look at the younger man. He couldn't hear himself think, his heartbeat the loudest thing in life, in his life. His legs didn't feel right, shaky and belonging to someone older. "What did you say?"
He was amazed he could hear that, and how calm he sounded, no, amazed he still felt amazement in that moment and all the other things he would expect to. When Ni-6 failed to respond, he found the strength to move legs that felt like brittle metal and lift arms that felt like clumped sediment, seizing his subordinate's shoulders and driving him against the door to his office. "What did you say?"
"It's…it's been overrun." Even if he couldn't hear, the words made him step back. "The tech said…one survivor. That's all they managed to find. Out of tens of thousands…one." Ni-6 raised his head. "And it wasn't my brother."
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