Gnomicles

Gnomicles t1_j20sbuc wrote

On a cold winter night, two figures approach one another in an abandoned train station, surrounded by snow and pine trees. The moon illuminates one, a pale woman, blonde-almost-white hair dangling out of her hood as she stops near the edge of the platform. The other figure, a man, appears from the shadows nervously looking her up and down as his eyes dart around the interior.

"Do you have them?" asks the woman.

The man reaches into his overcoat, his janitor ID card dangling from his breast pocket. It says his name is Jarl.

After rooting around a bit he pulls a small black cloth from his overcoat. He unwraps it to reveal small crystaline, ghostly white cylinders of varying sizes, no more then 2 inches long.

"Yup, fresh from the factory. They wont even miss them, we've got new-."

He's cut off by a train wooshs through the abandoned terminal, causing the pairs overcoat's to flap violently. Jarl covers his eye's, missing the woman reaching down, and tapping the talk button on her comm link three times.

Two cloaked figures leap from atop the train station onto the speeding train. It's a behemoth, each carriage, an identical brutal steel container. They work their way down the front of the carriage and peak inside the door. Hearing no one, they move in.

It's dark, save for some faint blue light strips near the top of the carriage. Once inside, they drop their cloaks. One of them is a woman, pale similar to the one on the plaform, the other a man, short dark hair and a goatee. Both atheltic in their black tactical gear, walky's, and a pair of side arms. They survey the carriage. It seems to contain uniform boxes, about six feet long. The woman, Zariel, moves up to one and puts her ear to the side.

"Poor things, you have no idea what's at the end of the line."

The man, Ryv, moves to another box and starts feeling around.

"Stop" Zariel shouts "any tampering and they will stop the train before we get to the shield".

Ryv pulls back.

"Sorry, I just wanted to see it, maybe save this one. Who knows if this will work".

Zariel stands. "It will. Mariel has been scouting this place for months. Once we're inside we'll be able to save all of them."

Ryv moves towards her and pulls her hand up to his lips and gives it a light kiss. They stay in that moment, knowing this might be the last time they see each other.

Zariel suddenly grabs the back of her neck. The hairs on it have risen. They both wince and begin to keel over. Quickly pulling out a syringe of gray liquid they stab it into their necks. After a moment the pain subsides.

Zariel nods. "Thirty seconds."

She exits the carriage, and climbs atop. The wind howling, but she doesn't feel it. She pulls out her pistols, and checks the cartridges. Bullets tipped with a ghostly white gas shine inside. Satisfied, she scans ahead. A bright flash near a snow back gives away the perimeter, she fires a shot. It ripples across the shield; no damage. She fires a pair of rounds. A slight shimmering dent appears, but it quickly heals. Letting out a small sigh, she looks down, imagining where Ryv would be standing, then begins to unload her pistols at the rapidly approaching shield. Each round making a progressively larger dent, but no crack. She charges forward, as the guns flair and dives into the shield. A white flash appears as her body disintegrates, causing a crack to form in the shield.

Ryv stands at the back of the carriage listening to the carnage above, he closes his eyes and holds his breath, expecting the end. The guns go silent. The end does not come. He let's out a sigh and touches his ear piece.

"Wow, I didn't think we'd get past. Your amazing. I love you."

He waits, but no reply. He's alone now. Though he doesn't get a moment to grieve the realization as the pale blue lights suddenly turn orange, and the train begins to slow. Ryv steps outside. They are no where near a station, so this can only mean that they detected the breach.

He pulls back inside and sits down behind one of the boxes in the centre Drawing his pistols, he checks the cartridges. They have the same ghostly rounds as Zariel's. He reaches inside his shirt, pulling out the skull necklace he was wearing, and putting his hand on the side of the box.

"Don't worry, I will at least save you."

After a few minutes he can hear the soldiers coming down the carriage. The clink of their automatic weapons against their plated armor. The door creaks open and two soldiers slowly move inside, checking the carriage.

Ryv takes a deep breath, leaps to his feet and fires a single round. It penetrates the first soldier and explodes against the second, blowing both apart. As their stumps slump to the floor, bullets start flying in from the carriage door, ricoching around the carriage. He ducks back behind the box. More soldier rush in and he can hear them moving to the other end of the carriage. There are too many of them.

The doors at the other end fly open and the soldiers start moving towards Ryv. He jumps back up and begins to fire in both directions. His rounds exploding, causing massive damage, but the returning automatic fire also finds it's mark. He slumps down, checking his wounds while a fresh batch of soldiers moves around the outside of the carriage. Gray goo oozes from a wound in his chest. He coughs up some ooze. This is over. Grabbing the skull around his neck as the solders begin to circle; he stands.

"In Morte", he shouts as he kisses the skull.

A bright flash moves through the carriage. The explosion even illiminating the now empty train station.

Jarl is startled by the flash as he trudges through the snow banks. Quickly turning on his comm link.

"What was that?" he shouts into it.

Though some broken static, the word "Reapers" is heard. Unfortunately too late for Jarl, whose shocked face rolls onto the snow. His slumping headless torso reveals Mariel, the woman he met earlier, with a bloody sickle in her hand.

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