Minutes before the fighting with the quarry eels started two floors above, Angelo and Nguyen entered the floor of the control room.

That part of the facility was, if it was even possible, even more high tech than the rest, and richly decorated too. The floor was covered in a red carpet and the walls were lined with laminated wall panels behind which soft lights had been installed, making the lighting here much less aggressive than the industrial lights found on the generator and shield level. The utilitarian parts were still visible however: a mesh of wire ran along the roof of the tunnels on this level and control panels and ventilation fans remained visible at regular intervals. The gun emplacements guarding the entrance on that level were even hidden behind subtle Plexiglas windows, ready to pop up at any moment.

A guard post was set up directly by the entrance, but the two guards that had been present at the moment the radiation hit were… unable to keep up their duties. Still, Angelo had to admit, the HPI knew how to equip their guys.

Over a Kevlar reinforced version of the usual HPI coveralls, the Belgian and the French guard (as shown by the flags on their shoulder) were wearing extensive ceramic body armor. The sheer weight of all that plating would have been enough to make the average human collapse, but it seemed the HPI (this branch at least) had figured out how to make powered exoskeletons, as shown by the frame that wrapped around their bodies just below the armor plates. Both of them were armed with what looked like a heavily improved version of the P90 sub machinegun (of which they had a couple copies themselves inside of Amandine’s armory, albeit unimproved). Angelo couldn’t see their faces as they were hidden behind balaclavas and their eyes were masked by the thick ballistic plate of their helmets’ visors, but their expression wouldn’t have been pleasant to look at considering the yellow trickle of spit and vomit that pierced the balaclavas.

One of them had had enough time to react to the cataclysm before dying and had jabbed an auto-injector pen in his leg, for all the good the medicine did. He was leaning halfway against the guard post, his cadaver still held up in a bizarre mockery of a mannequin by the immobile servos of his exoskeleton.

The duo left the dead guards behind and progressed down the hallway following indications on the walls that pointed to the control room.

Along the way, they passed many offices and conference rooms. Most of them were empty, but some held what must have been HPI executives. Some were dressed in coveralls, albeit with silver or gold trim on the collar, while others wore suits befitting their rank as high standing members of the European branch. One particularly large and well furnished office held the corpse of one redheaded woman, the plate on the door of the office labeling her as the branch director. She had been in the process of reviewing paperwork when the Event hit, and now she laid face down on her desk, her fiery hair forming a halo around her head.

Behind him, Angelo could see that Nguyen wasn’t too comfortable at the sight of all the corpses around them. He gave the cat a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before urging him onward to the control room. Time was of the essence, visiting the place could wait.

A couple turns later, they passed a large server room which seemed to be the clustering point of all the wiring that passed overhead. Cold air from the cooling equipment drifted from inside the room, making both sailors shudder a bit. A lone technician laid sprawled amidst the servers, surrounded by dismantled electronics and loose wire.

Next to the server room was a metal sliding door with the letters ‘control room’ written in white on it. No less than four gun emplacements surrounded the door, leaving them little doubt about the importance of the room. Angelo silently typed the override code on a computer beside the door, making it slide upward with the hiss of a pneumatic system, revealing a small airlock. Nguyen and he went inside, though it was a bit of a tight fit considering the minotaur’s large frame. He gave the cat a sheepish smile as he leaned forward to avoid scratching the roof with his horns.

After cycling the air a couple times, the airlock’s inner door slid up to show them a wide staircase that opened up to the sides after a couple meters. Directly on their right was a door that led to what looked like a situation room, which they followed. The room had a long table in its center, and numerous screens occupied its walls on one side, while the other side was occupied by a glass window that showed them the control room. At the head of the table was a tall leather chair, the director’s chair for when their branch leaders gathered there. Behind that chair was another door that led to a balcony overlooking the control room.

It was designed like some sort of auditorium: the staircase that came after the airlock kept going down a gently sloped floor until it reached a platform. Workstations were installed along the slope, allowing every user of the control room to get a look at the screens on the very tall wall at the end of the slope. The sheer size of the room would have made the war rooms of the Pentagon and the Kremlin look tiny, and the level of technology present outdid anything the two seafarers could think of. The computers that equipped each workstation looked at least two generations ahead of the best the market could field at the time of the Event.

Looking up, Angelo spotted several walkways fixed to the roof of the room, allowing technicians access to the complex maze of wires that ran around the nerve center of the European HPI.

One thing of note he observed too, were the projectors installed at regular intervals around the room, accompanied by a pedestal right in front of the screens at the base of the slope. The way it was presented, it looked like it was important to the working of the control room somehow…

They made their way back out of the situation room and went down the stairs into the control proper, having found nothing of immediate use to them inside it. Angelo shuddered, the control room’s atmosphere was cold due to all the cooling required for the computers, and the lighting was kept at a low level. Heading to the central workstations at the top of the slope, Angelo pushed the corpse of the lone HPI agent that had been keeping watch when the radiation hit out of the way, making a quick sign of the cross in passing.

While his superior was busy with the central console, Nguyen approached the mysterious pedestal at the bottom of the slope. The thing was hooked to a lot of wiring, but didn’t seem to have much in the way of controls: a single on/off button stood out against the aluminum casing of the pedestal.

Naturally, Nguyen pressed it.

The pedestal hummed to life, some lines in its casing lighting up with an icy blue glow. All of the projectors around the room flickered to life, focusing on the pedestal in front of the bewildered cat.

“What’s going on?” Angelo asked, tearing his muzzle away from the screens in front of him.

“I don’t know I just pressed the ‘on’ button!” Nguyen cried out.

Before the minotaur had the time to give his subordinate a stinging remark about pushing buttons he didn’t know shit about, the projectors let out a soft ‘beep’. Light coalesced around one point above the pedestal, shaping up to form one very clear holographic display.

“’Initializing control room assistance system: Athena (build 0.12.3)’. Boss, looks like that could help us.” Nguyen read out.

“We don’t know how it even works; let’s not get our hopes up.”

A loading bar appeared beneath the floating text. When it reached 100%, it disappeared for a second, before being replaced by the form of a statuesque woman floating in the air. The woman was clad in a toga, held at the waist by a string of rope. On her head, she wore a helmet straight out of Ancient Greece which hid her facial features. She held a long hafted spear in one hand, and a shield in the other.

The hologram was truly stunning, though it had its limitations. For one, it wasn’t particularly stable, flickering every few seconds; and for second, it was monochrome. Weirdly enough, both of those limitations added up to give the figure an even more ethereal look, like a golden apparition that had come down to grace the Earth with its presence.

The figure slowly turned its head in the direction of Angelo, stoically staring at the engineer across the length of the control room.

“Warning: no user logged in at command station. Please start operating procedures from the command station.” It uttered in a flat voice.

“She talks just like the GPS lady!” Nguyen blurted out.

“’It’ cook, it’s a machine, not a… person” He caught himself before saying human. “They probably programmed it with a generic voice. I think it’s only allowed to interact if a user is logged in, wait a sec.” Angelo said, tapping the keyboard on the computer in front of him.

The screen came to life, showing a login menu. The minotaur just typed the override code once again, bypassing the need for any user ID. The hologram jerked its head when he typed the code.

“Starting assistance process. Override code detected, please state your facility of origin.”

“North American facility.” She didn’t need to know they weren’t from the HPI. “Present to reestablish communications between facilities.” Angelo answered, leaning down towards a microphone inserted in the desk in front of him.

“Acknowledged.” The hologram flickered once. “You have thirty-seven alarms pending acknowledgment…”

“Skip.” Angelo said firmly. He had no time to review alarms he was probably already aware of.

“Please state your request.”

“Show me the security cameras.” He tried. “Two floors above us.”

“Sending live feed for hydroponics to main screen.” The hologram complied.

The screens, small and large that occupied the large wall at one end of the control room came to life showing them every camera (and boy was there a lot of them) on the requested floor. On one screen, Nguyen pointed out their two companions slowly progressing through the level, guns at the ready. Good, they had yet to find the monsters… which Angelo spotted on another screen, quickly identifying them as the three quarry eels they had met earlier.

Too bad he couldn’t make heads or tail of the order in which the rooms came. Time to try something else.

“Athena.” At least it’s what he assumed the program was called. “Show me the floor plan of the hydroponics. Highlight camera positions.”

The computer program complied with the request, pulling out a giant plan on the main screen. That’s one step forward...

“Nguyen?” Angelo asked.

“Yes?” The cat said, halfway turning towards the minotaur.

“Can you try and memorize the layout of that floor and pair it with the cameras? I need you to guide Niko and Rob once I find the PA system.”

The cat gave a sharp nod and turned back to face the large screen. Behind his console, Angelo leaned down to speak into the microphone.

“Athena, highlight the gun emplacements too.” He said, careful to pronounce his sentences clearly so the hologram would be able to pick up what he meant.

Only the gun emplacements at the entrance of the hydroponics popped up on the map. In front of him, he saw Nguyen scratch his chin pensively as he pieced together what the cameras were showing him and placing it mentally on the map.

“How can we control the guns?” He tried.

“Please repeat your question.” The computer droned.

“Athena, tell me how the gun systems work.” He repeated slowly.

The hologram pointed its lance at a row of computers towards the middle of the control room, each equipped with a joystick.

“The Remote Control Heavy Defense System or RCHDS is a core component of the facility’s defensive network. Each gun emplacement is equipped with a single F2 20mm gun. All of the guns inside the underground sections of the facility have been modified with a short barrel and autoloading system…”

“Skip. How can I control them?”

“Warning, each user must first receive the safe use briefing before being allowed to manipulate the gun controls. Untrained use of the weapon system may result in injuries ranging from loss of life to loss of…”

“Skip.” Angelo said impatiently. “My colleagues are in danger! How long is your fucking briefing?”

“This unit is authorized to provide the abridged fifteen minutes version of the briefing, do you wish to proceed?”

“Negative. I will just use the override code and figure it out myself you useless piece of code.” He growled out, already walking towards the weapon stations.

“Warning, each user must first…”

“Shut the fuck up!” Angelo yelled.

He plopped himself down in a seat in front of one of the weapon stations, trying to make sense of it. The controls seemed rather complicated, though the system was laid out with two screens per station: one normal, another obviously being military hardware in front of the joystick. In a drawer below the stations, Angelo found an instruction manual which he tauntingly held up for the hologram to see.

Now to figure out how to work the guns…

On Nguyen’s side, the cat had finished memorizing the floor layout and was tracking the progress of Nikola’s team on the map in front of him. Seeing his superior busy with the guns, he made his way towards the central station and decided to ask Athena about the PA system.

The blasted computer had him repeat himself four times in a row because of his accent, but he managed to get the hologram speaking (after copiously insulting it in Vietnamese on the last try).

“To use the general announcement system, activate the option in the emergency tab on the central station and speak into the microphone on your right.” A small mic popped up out of the desk on Nguyen’s right.

“Uh… simple enough, and she ain’t ranting about safety this time.”

“Warning: use of the PA sys…”

“Skip” He said.

Before he had time to even open the menu to activate the mic, a blur of movement on the cameras drew his attention.

Niko and Rob had finally reached the eels. Fortunately, they hadn’t engaged them yet, but they were dangerously close.

“Angelo, if you’re gonna figure out those guns, now is the right time.”

“Need a couple more minutes, why what’s…” The minotaur trailed off when he looked up from his manual and towards the screens. “Shit. Can you tell them to wait?”

“Not without alerting the eels.”

Angelo swore and started flipping through the manual at an accelerated pace. His pace only increased when their two companions opened fire on the eels and were chased down the hallways. They hurried into an office with the three monsters pursuing them, their immense size crushing or pushing aside anything in their path.

Roberto’s claws tapped impatiently on the barrel of the machinegun in front of him. The suspense was starting to get on his nerves.

Down the hallway, the three eels were methodically checking one office after another. There was just no way a mere beast could be that smart, animals don’t do searches, much less in a methodical pattern like that.

The cat winced when he heard yet another door be slammed open by the large creatures, making him retract his claws in surprise. That sounded like it was three, maybe four offices next to them? He didn’t know.

His gaze drifted to the bandaged gargoyle in the room. Nikola was in pain, that much was very clear. The light dose of painkiller he had given him was barely enough to dull the pain, but he didn’t have anything better to give him. The gargoyle was in the process of refilling his spent magazine with loose ammunition from a pouch on his flak jacket, making a barely audible ‘clink’ every time he inserted a new round in the mag. For a second, Roberto’s eyes fixated on the blood stains that marked Nikola’s coveralls and the bandage he had wrapped around his head.

Another slamming noise down the hallway. Two doors left. The Italian checked if his gun was ready to open fire. Half a belt of ammo left and no monster killed to show for it.

Like a godsend, the PA system finally sprang to life with Nguyen’s accented voice. Roberto thanked whatever Gods there were in this wretched world for that lifesaver.

“We’re ready guys! I got you on the cameras, just follow my instructions and you will be fine.”

Roberto gave a thumbs up in the direction of the nearest security camera while Nikola slowly stood up, biting back a pained groan.

“Fire on your left when you exit, then run directly ahead through a supply closet.”

The cat hoisted up his machinegun and quickly checked on his companion. The injured gargoyle gave him a grim nod before approaching the door. In a whisper, Nikola counted down.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One”

Nikola pushed the door open in one swift motion and ran out the door, Roberto in tow. A few meters on their left, they saw the three eels and immediately opened fire on them, both sailors shooting a short burst from the hip.

Only a few shots hit, but that was enough to make the eels recoil in pain and give them enough time to build up some distance between them and the monsters. Knowing his colleague was injured, Roberto willingly stayed behind to let him set the pace, though he didn’t have to slow down too much.

Adrenaline does wonders sometimes.

The quarry eels were surprisingly fast for monsters of their size, but Nguyen had made up for it by guiding them through as many enclosed spaces as possible such as supply closets and maintenance corridors, keeping the sailors just ahead of their pursuers.

The way the Vietnamese guided them quickly made them both lose their bearings as he sent them through several turns and twisting hallways. Roberto stopped trying to remember where they were after the first few turns to focus on his running. He could feel the sweat building up under his fur, and the weight of the machinegun cradled in his paws was starting to wear him out. He wasn’t as strong as he used to be when he was human, and the gun was already heavy for trained soldiers, let alone a secretary. If this kept up like this, he might end up as dinner for the large burrowing eels.

Ahead of him, Nikola was having difficulties of his own. He didn’t have the problem of Roberto’s thick fur retaining too much heat, but his injuries and lack of balance more than made up for it. With one hand extended to keep his balance and the other cradling his injured ribs, he had let his rifle hang freely in its sling.

“Keep it up guys you’re on the last stretch!” Nguyen said encouragingly.

Behind them, the eels had slowly been gaining on them for the last few minutes of running. With a grunt, Roberto forced himself to pump his legs faster. He was starting to recognize where they were.

Just as they approached the entrance of the hydroponics level, the ground exploded right behind them when the alpha eel burst from the ground, sending debris all over the place and the two sailors flying forward. One flying piece of rebar would have skewered Roberto had he not felt the urge to lean ever so slightly to the side a second before. Instead, both Niko and Rob slid the rest of the way to the entrance hall.

Unable to make out anything through the cloud of dust the alpha had caused, Roberto wildly dumped the rest of his ammunition in the general direction of the eels. The machinegun sang its deadly tune, filling the hallway with supersonic lead and eliciting a few sharp screams from the monsters before a click signaled he had reached the end of the ammo belt.

A whirr above him attracted his attention as one of the gun emplacements came to life, its protection panels sliding away to make room for the deadly autocannon. With a loud ‘click-clack’, it loaded the first round in its chamber, and then waited, the green gleaming optics at the base of the gun waiting for a target.

That target didn’t get to wait long, because the cloud of dust dissipated within seconds, revealing the three quarry eels, two of which were already wounded by gunfire. They attempted to charge at the downed sailors, but didn’t get very far before the cannon opened fire on them.

If the MAG machinegun he had fired was considered deafening, the autocannon above him was something else entirely. The booming noise it made every time it fired sent Roberto reeling despite his ear defenders, the world around him fading away to leave only the sound of the cannon above. His paws flew up to his ears in an attempt to keep out the noise and at one point he found himself screaming in pain. The large spent casings of the cannon landed around him in a rain of hot brass, sometimes shattering floor tiles when they landed.

Unseen by the Italian, the 20mm rounds of the cannon ripped the eels apart. The HPI had loaded high-explosive belts inside the weapon emplacements before the Event, and the result showed by making literal sushi of the red skinned monsters. The alpha eel was hit the hardest, two successive rounds impacting its spine at its base and ripping it in half in a fountain of blood and gore. Its head carried on its momentum, landing just short of reaching Nikola, its yellow eyes now staring lifelessly at the gargoyle. Another of the eels got hit straight in the forehead, the explosive round digging just enough in its skull before the fuse ignited, splattering the hallway in grayish brain matter and skull fragments.

The last of the eels, the one Roberto had nailed in the gut earlier, was less fortunate. It didn’t get hit in the head, the rounds instead impacting it in the flank and tearing large holes in its muscle. It crumpled to the ground, the wounds rendering it unable to move but still very much alive. The wretched monster wailed in pain and struggled futilely to get away from the cannon that had now ceased firing. Soon enough, its wails weakened as its blood quickly poured out of it body before it finally died.

Roberto finally looked up; he was surrounded by spent casings and debris all around, his ears were ringing as if he had just facehugged a subwoofer at a festival for three hours straight and the pain he felt told him he might have sprained his ankle… and maybe his tail too, but they had won.

Smoke from the autocannon filled the room, the smell of burnt gunpowder and fresh blood having replaced the previous earth and decay of the hydroponics. Above him, the gun emplacement receded back behind its protection panels, having done its job of defending the facility.

Next to Roberto, Nikola was laying sprawled on his back with a stupid grin on his muzzle. The gargoyle looked once at the dead eel’s head in front of him before bursting into a fit of hysterical laughter interrupted by hisses of pain, soon joined by Roberto. Both sailors laughed their asses off for a whole minute before regaining their spirits.

“Why are we laughing?” Rob asked after regaining his breath.

“No fucking clue, but it felt good.”

“Guys, I have no idea what joke got you going like that, but if you could try to make your way to the control room when you’ve regained your wits, that would be great.” Nguyen said over the PA system.

“You know, I once heard stories about people walking out of accidents laughing from the adrenaline…” Roberto said.

“Must be that.” Nikola shrugged, biting back a wince. “Shit, I think I sprained a wing. You good Rob?”

“Believe it or not, I think I sprained my tail, and probably my ankle too.”

“Sprained tail? Damn, last time it happened to me was at the red light district in Antwerp. Mind the hole in your ear too.”

“What?” Roberto’s paw flew up to his ear, in which he felt a rip the size of a coin, which was bleeding profusely too. “Damn, there go my good looks.” He commented, immediately wrapping a bandage around his head.

“Dunno pal, maybe the ‘alley cat’ look can suit you.”

“Tell me about it, Scarface.” Roberto joked.

“Hey, I dig the nickname. Loved the movie, it was all the rage when I was a teen.”

Roberto chuckled and went to get up, only to collapse back down after letting out a pained growl.

“Yup, sprained just as I expected.”

“Just lean on me, we will get you a crutch later if we can.” Nikola offered.

With a soft ‘thanks’, the cat accepted the offer and leaned on the smaller gargoyle’s shoulder, mindful of not touching his injured wing.

“Wanna take a trophy?” Nikola suggested, jabbing a thumb in the direction of the dead quarry eels.

“No thanks, let’s just get to the control room and catch some rest while the others finish the job.”

“Now that’s an idea I can get behind.”

“Athena. Give me a status report on the communication array.” Angelo asked.

Following the combat with the eels, the minotaur had shut down the weapon systems and started to go through what data he could find on the facility’s communication equipment. Nikola and Roberto had turned up wounded in the control room, and now Nguyen was tending to their wounds in the situation room. By sheer luck, they had managed to find some first aid kits along the way to avoid using their own already partially depleted medical stock.

A shame they had left the better part of their medical gear back in the mogs.

“Status report: all fours antenna sites are 100% operational and ready to be activated. The central communication server is currently unpowered. Activation is necessary to access the communication system.”

“You may activate all communication systems.”

“Warning: activation of core systems requires authorized user access.”

Angelo groaned in annoyance at the pesky AI before once again typing the override code, forcing it to comply with his request.

“I need to establish satellite contact with the North American facility, how can I do it?” He phrased carefully.

“Once the boot up process of the communications systems is finished, it is possible to link up the central computer to any of the antennas on all four sites. Dialing up other facilities is part of the core system functions and can be accessed from the control menu of the communication systems.”

Simple enough then. After giving the computer enough time to warm up, Angelo just had to hook it up to a satellite antenna of his choosing and voila, he was ready to call the Americans. The programs didn’t even ask him for a code when he activated the information exchange with the other facility.

A mere minute after the exchange began; he got a call on the central station. Agent Eko’s voice rang over the line the moment he picked up the call.

“Congratulations on a job well done Molnàr. May I inquire about how it went?” The Indonesian asked politely. That was a rather abrupt change from how he had addressed him before; the agent must be feeling good about the operation being a success.

“Not too good I must say. The premises got breached by monsters after we entered, I got two members of my team lightly injured, but they should be fine in the long run.”

“Ah yes, monsters. They’ve been the talk of the research department ever since you pointed them to the nuclear experts. I trust they’re taken care of?”

“Got that done before restoring communications. It was some sort of burrowing land eels, very large in size.” He skipped the fact they may have been responsible for drawing them there in the first place. “I’m afraid we’ve found nothing but corpses inside the facility, observations seem to indicate this so-called ‘thaumic’ radiation killed them.”

“Was the shield active? It’s very important to us.”

“That it was.” Angelo frowned. “Even though it was running beyond its normal working parameters it utterly failed at keeping out the radiation. Though it did create a sort of… unsettling feeling among the members of my team.”

“Unsettling you say?”

“Correct, from the moment we entered the premises up until we shut it down, my companions and I were feeling a profound sensation of dread. The feeling is only just starting to dissipate.”

“That’s one thing worth noting indeed. Is that all?”

“Beside the fact that this Athena AI is really annoying, nothing that I can think of. It did mention some alarms when we booted it up, but the presence of the monsters pushed me to ignore them at the time.”

“Our own teams should be able to review those ourselves. Funny thing you’d mention it, Athena I mean. The European branch was very unenthusiastic about implementing advanced builds of it into their mainframe, something about not wanting to trust automated systems to such an extent.” It seemed the agent was relaxing to the idea of working through them, time to try something.

“What is Athena precisely?” Angelo asked.

“As far as I’m allowed to tell you, it’s an AI system meant to assist my organization in managing systems automatically; it lets us reduce manning requirements, though the European branch willingly restricted its ability to interfere with their systems by using an older build.”

“Didn’t sound too advanced, beyond the hologram that is.”

“Different ethics about technology.” Angelo could practically hear the man shrug across the line. “Anyway, thank you again for restoring communications; you have done a great deed for the sake of the planet. Our own agents will take it from there…” Eko trailed off.

“I sense there is something more.”

“Indeed there is. I have a request from our research department. They say they can access research data remotely but they need some of the prototypes that were in the hands of the European branch at the time of the cataclysm…”

“I’m afraid I have to stop you there.” Angelo apologized. “I am under strict orders not to accept any request from your organization without express authorization from Captain Prateek.”

“That can be corrected quickly. May I invite him on the call?”

“By all means…” Angelo said.

It took a whole five minutes before the Captain answered the call. Apparently, he had been having a rather important discussion with Chief Officer Mendoza when they called, though he didn’t say what it was about.

Probably just the modifications they were doing to the ship.

“Greetings Eko. Why are you calling me now? They still need a couple hours before completing the shutdown in Tihange if I remember correctly.” Dilip inquired.

“It’s about the facility in Chooz Captain. Eko has a request to submit to you.” Angelo interjected.

“Can’t say I didn’t expect that. Still, glad to hear you Molnàr, how is the operation in Chooz going?”

Angelo briefly brought his Commanding Officer up to snuff about what had occurred down there. The Captain wasn’t too happy to hear about the two injured crewmembers and warned Angelo they would seriously investigate his decisions once they got back to the ship before they went on with Eko’s request.

“The request came from our research department Captain.” Eko explained. “They want to retrieve the prototypes that had been transferred to the facility before the cataclysm. From what I understand, they didn’t have time to move them to the labs so they should either be in the hangar or the warehouses, still inside a shipping container.”

“Transporting freight is our core business, how much cargo are we talking about and is it dangerous?” Dilip asked.

“All of the prototypes fit into a standard forty-foot container and no, nothing dangerous. It’s only inert cybernetics and drone parts, plus a few batteries –none of which are loaded I assure you-.”

“Then it’s something we can transport. However… I thought you said your organization was unable to leave their bunker?”

“We still are, but predictions have us believe we can downsize our shield system so that it would fit on vehicles within one or two months. Then, we will be able to pick up the gear once you bring it to port.”

“Crossing the Atlantic doesn’t take that much time you know. Are your superiors comfortable with us keeping the prototypes in the meantime?”

“They aren’t, but they don’t have much choice. It will take much more time for us to reestablish a sufficient air fleet or even reach our mothballed fleet, it’s either trust you and have them in one or two months, or don’t and maybe have them in one or two years.” Eko admitted.

“Why Eko, you seem to be getting comfortable talking to us outsiders, revealing all that.” Angelo commented.

“My realization of our need for outside help doesn’t mean we are friends Molnàr, remember that.” Eko snapped. “My organization needs your assistance, regardless of divergent opinions on the matter at the command level. Me revealing you more about us is just a token of our willingness to take care of our allies. That, however, is between me and your Captain only.”

Rude much, but accurate.

“Molnàr, you may retrieve the target container once Eko gives you a description.” Dilip said. “Eko, I do not have time to discuss the terms of this transportation at the moment. Call me again this evening around ten in the evening, Belgian time that is.” The Indian concluded before hanging up.

“Now that it’s just the two of us, care to tell me what kind of container I’m looking for?” Angelo asked.

“Blue container, probably from the CMA-CGM originally, with a new logo painted on. It’s six white circles arranged in a hexagon with another circle in the center.”

Angelo thought about something he had seen on the internet before the Event.

“Isn’t that the flag of Earth?”

“Exactly, and now it represents the HPI and humanity. Good luck, I need to leave now.”

And just with that, Eko hung up on him without even waiting to see if he had a question. Angelo let out an annoyed snort, one step forward and two steps back with that Agent Eko. As long as the Captain is on the line the guy plays relatively nice, and the moment he hangs up the agent just gives his orders and leaves.

Picking up his rifle in one hand, the minotaur slowly made his way to the situation room to tell his companions about the new assignment. Thankfully, it should be much simpler than what they had been doing since they left Amandine.

The sun was setting after a bright day on the port of Antwerp. Of course, it would have been hard to tell with all the lighting that was coming from the flare stacks that dotted the industrial landscape.

That’s the problem with liquefied gas: once you stop the refrigeration process; it gradually starts boiling and then it evaporates. Of course, that was also the case with petroleum products, but to a lesser extent. The flares coming from the oil terminals and the refinery were lit with a much lesser intensity than those on the gas terminals. The flames there must have been a good fifty meters in height, Vadim estimated.

The Ukrainian griffon was keeping watch on top of the monkey island, having already done his rounds for the duration of his watch. There was no need for him to remain on the bridge, he had set all the communication gear to the maximum volume so that he’d hear it if the ship received a message of any kind. Being a scant few meters from the bridge as he was, he was ready to react should anything occur during his watch anyway.

As usual, he was clad in the orange high-vis coveralls that were practically a uniform for the crew. He had modified his own set by sewing on more pockets (to the point of Micha calling it ridiculous) here and there, as well as zippers to let his wings through if he felt like it, which happened to be the case at the moment.

Had he not been busy keeping watch, he might have dozed off: he was lying on his belly, wings extended limply on either side of him catching the soft winds that passed through the port. The sea breeze did a good job of keeping away the fumes of the flares and brought the pleasant smell of the sea with it. The temperature was just right at the moment, with the last rays of the sun warming up his wings nicely. He had actually managed to get them to fold and unfold at his command recently. Sure that wasn’t much, but progress was progress.

The griffon actually caught himself purring. He shook his head in embarrassment and tried to look a bit more serious about his task. Micha was out with a team keeping an eye on the nuclear plant while Schmitt did the shutdown, but that still left Alejandro and the Captain aboard who could accuse him of slacking off on duty.

The rifle lying beside him was enough of a hint they weren’t exactly here for holidays. No monster had been located in Antwerp yet, but they still needed to keep a tight watch. Vadim clicked his beak distractedly and gave one more look around.

Amandine was moored at a container terminal, a mere two kilometers away from the Doel power plant. Its cooling towers were easily visible downstream of them along the river Scheldt. The terminal itself was extremely large, having been built to receive multiple container carriers at a time, each about twice the size of Amandine. Tall as she was, the terminal was meant to receive bigger ships even, and the port’s cranes loomed over her superstructure.

Now that’s an achievement, making a 200m long ship look small.

The container terminal was, as expected, a well secured installation, which had made their efforts of ensuring the place was safe as long as they were moored there relatively easy. They had two sailors on watch at the entry checkpoint with a machinegun keeping an eye on the entrance, with a constant radio contact with him and the guys at the power plant. When they arrived in the morning, some of them wanted to check out the containers but the Captain had put a stop to that quickly. They were there for the power plant first, additional gear could wait.

The city of Antwerp itself was not visible from where they were moored. The port of Antwerp was among the top five biggest ports of Europe, its facilities extended for kilometers on end. They must have been about ten kilometers away from the city. Not even the highest skyscrapers were visible at this distance, hidden behind the twisting landscape of the various terminals, locks and warehouses along the banks of the Scheldt.

Animals had been quick to venture close to the terminals once human activity wound down to nothing. Vadim remembered coming to Antwerp a few times in the past and this was the first time he had seen seals this close to the city. The grey furred mammals were curiously exploring the port, looking for fish now that they were under no risk of being trampled by a barge or a ship. One colony of them was happily resting in the mud of the river bank opposite their terminal.

A flicker of light on the edge of his vision suddenly drew Vadim’s attention. The grey griffon’s head snapped towards a highway going around the port, his raptor sight easily focusing on a convoy he would have had trouble seeing without binoculars in the past.

In some ways the transformation wasn’t all that bad.

The convoy was led by a familiar white UN unimog, though the reflecting light of the sun on the windshield prevented him from identifying the pilot. The mog was followed by a lorry towing a blue forty-foot container on its trailer, and then another mog, this one olive green, ended the convoy.

Angelo was back, and he had found the prototypes the HPI had asked them to retrieve.

“Bridge to Checkpoint, you’ve got an incoming convoy. The boys are back, over.” Vadim spoke in his walkie-talkie.

“Roger that bridge,” The sailor guarding the checkpoint answered, Yuri he was called, a Ukrainian turned into a hippogriff. “We will let them through, thanks for the heads up, out.”

Vadim folded his wings and slid down the ladder back to the bridge, his rifle slung around his back. The griffon padded over to the interphone on the bridge and quickly called the Captain to let him know Angelo was coming. He would have liked to have a lengthy chat with the minotaur himself, but he had been told about the injuries he would have to treat when they arrived.

He sighed, passing a claw through his grey feathers in a tired gesture. Time to play doctor again. He wasn’t too comfortable with the way the rest of the crew had started to consider him as the go-to medical expert; he wasn’t an actual doctor, just an Officer that had gotten somewhat extensive training in medicine.

“Captain’s office, what’s the matter?” Dilip said over the interphone.

“Third Officer Zinoviya on the bridge. I just spotted the convoy coming in, so I will be down in the infirmary prepping it for the injured.”

“Thanks for the info Vadim, let Angelo know I will be waiting for him in my office when you see him, OK?” The Captain told before hanging up.

Putting the interphone back in place, Vadim slowly made his way down to the infirmary. Few crewmembers were on board at the time, what with most of them being busy with the Doel power plant.

There was only one person present inside the infirmary when Vadim reached it… or pony he should say. Bart, the unicorn they had rescued in Zeebrugge was still bedridden and would be for a few days more. The light blue furred equine was watching a movie on a laptop Geert had given him the day before, its hard drive loaded with movies subtitled in Dutch to help the guy learn English when Geert wasn’t available to give him lessons.

The unicorn raised his head upon noticing the grey griffon walk in the room, giving Vadim an inquisitive look.

“I’m not here for you.” Vadim said futilely. The Belgian wouldn’t understand him anyway, not without Geert present to do the translation (and the Dutchman was busy hopping around the power plant on crutches translating the controls for the Chief Engineer).

After watching the griffon pile up medical supplies on a tray, Bart concluded the Officer wasn’t here for him and resumed watching the laptop with a focus that bordered on the unhealthy.

A few minutes later, the door opened and Vadim turned around to face… Angelo’s crotch.

“You know, it gets really annoying being at crotch level with all the bipeds.” Vadim drawled.

“On the bright side you don’t have to kneel to give me a blowjob.” The minotaur joked.

Vadim had to crane his neck back to look Angelo in the eyes; the Greek had a grin on his muzzle.

“If you’re gonna be dumb enough to ask BJ’s from birds of prey don’t come complaining when you get your dick chopped off, debil. You come here to flaunt your Greek sexual depravity or you have some actual patients?”

“Sexual depravity? Why, you homophobic Vadim? Should I tell HR?” Angelo said, tilting his head to the side.

“Just saying, for a creature that’s supposed to be the result of godly levels of bestiality you ain’t exactly raising the bar. As for HR, one of the few good things that came out of this apocalypse is that those worthless desk jockeys are gone.”

“No argument ‘bout that.” The minotaur pointed a thumb back in the direction of the door. “Jokes aside, Rob and Niko are injured, can they come in?”

Vadim leaned back on his haunches and spread out his claws, showing off the supplies he had already prepared.

“What does it look like? You let them in and get out; the Captain’s waiting for you in his office. Now, shoo.” He said, pointing a talon towards the door.

Angelo’s grey furred frame disappeared through the door and in walked Rob and Niko, with the secretary leaning on the battered gargoyle.

“Bozhe moj,what the fuck happened to you guys?” Vadim exclaimed, rushing over to help Roberto to one of the beds.

“Monsters happened that’s what.” Nikola groaned out. “Quarry eels we decided to call them. Very big snake-ish things, they can dig through the ground.”

“Okay, I’m gonna need you to start over from the beginning.” Vadim said, taking off his gloves and applying a large dose of disinfectant to his claws.

“Well, we were going to the plant when there was this quarry…” Roberto explained.

“And now they’re dead?”

“Could have mistaken them for salsa when we left.” Nikola affirmed.

Vadim twisted the needle holder in his talons one last time, putting the finishing touch on the stitches on Roberto’s ear. The cat only felt mild trickle of blood down the side of his head, the ear having been desensitized by a small application of anesthetic.

“Was the stitching really necessary?” Roberto asked. “I’m pretty sure my ear would have been fine with a simple bandage.”

“Not with a rip that size, it would not.” Vadim said. “Plus it gives you some sense of kinship with Scarface over there.” He added, nodding in Nikola’s direction.

The gargoyle’s gash had been properly stitched and bandaged now (covering half the Bulgarian’s muzzle in white fabric). The wound would leave a scar, but nowhere near as bad as it would have been without Vadim’s intervention. Currently, Nikola was resting in one of the beds, holding a cool pad against his cracked ribs.

Almost as an afterthought after the stitching, the Ukrainian griffon applied a bandage around the Italian’s head. The white fabric, bearing some slight orange stains from the isobetadine Vadim used to disinfect the wound, made a stark contrast with the cat’s black fur.

“So did you guys take a trophy?” Vadim asked as he grabbed a splint for Roberto’s ankle.

“No, we only got photos. Didn’t feel like ripping off a fang or something.” Roberto said, brushing a paw over his bandaged ear.

“Shame, would have made a neat trinket. Can I see the pics?”

“Sure.” Nikola fished his phone out of his pocket and handed it to the griffon. “It’s not locked.”

Vadim whistled upon seeing the pictures of the eels. The first one showed the trio roaring at the convoy from the safety of the quarry, and the next one showed their disfigured corpses.

“Hey Bart check this out!” He said, showing the phone to the bedridden unicorn in the room.

The equine’s large eyes bulged out when he saw the pictures. His head flicked back and forth between the two injured sailors in the other beds and the phone.

“You… Kill? Kill, deze?” Bart struggled, pointing his hoof first at the phone then towards Roberto.

The cat gave a soft nod.

“Goed gedaan.” The Belgian said. “Less monsters… is good for… boat?” He said tentatively.

“Ship.” Vadim corrected. “Boat is small, ship is big.” He explained, trying to keep his words simple.

The blue unicorn accepted the explanation with a polite nod before turning his attention back to the laptop in front of him. With the tip of his hoof, he pressed the spacebar and resumed watching his movie.

Splinting Roberto’s ankle was a matter of being crafty, but little changes to splints made for humans were needed to fit the cat’s foot, though he would be more restrained by it than a human would have been.

Things got a bit weirder when Niko and Rob asked him if he could find a splint for their sprained wing and tail respectively. That was something new…

“So I heard about you and Micha…” Nikola said suggestively while the griffon was measuring how to splint his wing.

“Heard what?”

“Well, there’s this rumor that’s been going around the ship how you’ve been… you know…” Nikola said.

“Porking.” Roberto finished.

“I’m sorry what?” Vadim said a bit forcefully.

“It’s the logical conclusion.” Roberto shrugged. “The night before we left he –or maybe should we say she in this instance- was seen leaving your cabin blackout drunk. So… we figured you were both active, so to speak.”

“Dude what the hell, he’s my best friend on this ship, why would I try and fuck him?!” Vadim cried out, insistent on putting emphasis on the ‘him’.

“Eh mind the wing.” Nikola interjected. The Ukrainian had squeezed the sprained limb quite hard when Roberto spoke up.

“Sorry Niko. Regardless, that’s gotta be the dumbest thing I heard today.”

“Not to some on this ship.” Nikola countered.

“Then they’re wrong. Micha and I were talking. He was married before the Event and I was gonna propose to my girl. He’s been female for what? A week? I know some of you guys are thirsty but it’s not the case for all of us, go jack off or something.” He told, carefully folding Nikola’s wing against his back before wrapping a bandage around the guy’s upper torso to keep it in place.

Hopefully the frame he had stuck against the wing kept it from moving too much, though the bandage holding the splint in place would be painful to the gargoyle’s injured ribs. As long as he stuck to light duty, his ribs shouldn’t get any worse.

“In all honesty Vadim? You’re being naïve.” Nikola said. “It’s not like we can get hookers to blow off some steam, and I bet you at least one of the guys-turned-gals feels curious to try it out. It’s gonna happen eventually.”

“And if you guys could avoid projecting your sexual drive onto me, that would be great.”

“We can do that but no promises about the rest of the crew.” Roberto shrugged.

“Whatever, I got a watch to go back to. You’re both on light duty until I decide the contrary, anybody’s got a problem with that, send them to me, got it?” He grabbed two small cardboard boxes from a shelf. “I put these together; you’ve got fresh bandages and voltaren gel in there for the sprains. Some ibuprofen too for the pain, and a week of antibiotics to be taken daily. Try to keep water out of the bandaged stitches and…”

“Yada yada, I know the drill Officer, no need to recite your Bible to me.” Nikola interrupted him. “Any problem or infection, we get back to you, easy.”

“Fine then!” Vadim exclaimed, pulling off his nitrile gloves and throwing them in the bin. He put his ‘walking’ gloves back on before walking out with a huff.

Nikola listened intently to the noise of the Officer leaving, waiting ‘til he reached the stairs before speaking up.

“How long?”

“I’d say… two weeks before they’re an item.” Roberto said.

“Wanna bet? Three Havana’s on the three weeks mark.” Nikola said.

“Make it five and that’s a deal.”

“Sold.”

Dilip dismissed Angelo after a brief review of the minotaur’s ‘expedition’. He had ordered the minotaur to write down a complete after action report for the next day, with reports from his team members included. He didn’t have time to completely go over what had occurred during Angelo’s outing, so that would have to be postponed for later.

Now he had a call waiting, as shown by the clock on his desk nearing ten o’clock.

Right on cue, a request for a video call sprang up on his computer, this one not needing to be patched through from the bridge since he had given Eko the number of his workstation. A quick flick of his mouse later, the Indonesian’s face appeared on the screen.

“Hello again. I heard my team in Doel was putting the finishing touches for the shutdown.” Dilip started.

“So have I Captain. Do you have the prototypes?”

“Loaded and stowed. Now I believe we should discuss the… payment regarding this delivery.”

“My superiors have yet to choose the port of delivery, but it will certainly be on the East coast of the United States. As for the payment, I believe my organization has manufacturing capabilities you don’t have, and we can make the parts to keep your ship going.”

“Now you have my interest.” Dilip said, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms. “Do go on.”

“Anything you request, we can manufacture, and while you may be able to keep going with parts obtained from warehouses for a while, that would be… inefficient. Provided you are willing to keep upholding contracts for us, we will provide you with the best electronics and mechanical parts technology can achieve.”

The dog stared thoughtfully at the screen in front of him. The Indonesian had managed to put his finger right where it hurt. They did need to find parts for Amandine, and a steady supply was nothing to scoff at…

“Deal.” Dilip said. “I will have a talk with my Chief Engineer to figure out what are the most pressing parts, we will e-mail a list. Think you can get someone to work out a written contract?”

“Yes, but it might take some time to go up the chain of command for approval. Contracts with third parties are…”

“Difficult for a secretive organization like yours, I get it.” Dilip interrupted. “Should it fail, will we get the first batch of parts?”

“That I can guarantee.” Eko reassured him.

“Good. That’s the deal for the prototypes, what about the power plants?”

“For that we have agreed to give you something else. You know about all the satellites that surround the planet?”

“Obviously.” The Captain scoffed.

“First off, you can be certain that communication and geolocation systems will be maintained by our organization so you needn’t worry about GPS or SATCOM stopping working. Maintenance of other services may vary depending on the payload we can use on the satellites, but little trouble is to be expected. What matters for your reward is the login we can give you to access admin parameters on all these networks. We’re also adding military-grade GPS in the package.”

“Alright now you got me impressed. With that we ought to be able to see and locate all traffic on the network, doesn’t that worry you?”

“Of course you won’t be able to use it to locate our assets, we made sure of that. What you can locate on the other hand, are uses of satellite tech all around the world.”

“Other survivors.”Dilip whispered.

“Exactly. I believe this should be more effective than mere radio surveillance. The location algorithm is imbedded in the programming, so no need to worry about that. There is something else you will find useful too: the weather satellites are integrated into the network.”

“Really? Replaces the NavTex I guess.”

“I’m no weatherman Prateek, so you will have to try it out yourself, but it should be effective.”

“That’s great news Eko. I thank your superiors for putting this much trust into us, I will make sure it is not misplaced.” He shuffled in his seat a bit to adjust his tail. “Now, I believe I am owed a history lesson on your organization if I remember correctly?”

“Yes, so here’s how it goes…” Eko began.

“It all began in the sixties, as a byproduct of the Space Race. In 1963 the first manned flights were being sent up in space, and humanity got its first chances at looking out unimpeded towards the center of the galaxy. That’s when they noticed something odd.

I can’t recall which mission encountered it first. Soviet for sure, Vostok I think they called it. Regardless, something happened when the pilot left the atmosphere. He didn’t die, but it sure came close when he was exposed to something that wasn’t the expected cosmic rays. The Soviets were pretty hush-hush about it and didn’t say much about it, but they started to fit sensors to their satellites to look into it.

It’s the Yanks that reached out to the Soviets about it when another similar incident happened during a flight for Project Mercury. Another pilot injured, Gus Grissom, he died shortly after returning to Earth. Same radiation, but this time the exposure was greater and Grissom came back as a drooling vegetable. A shame, the guy would have made a great astronaut from what his story led to believe, but that’s more of a personal opinion. As far as the public was concerned, the guy was dead before landing from cosmic rays.

Since the NASA couldn’t figure it out on their own and neither could the Soviets; President LBJ reached out to the Kremlin and had a talk with General Secretary Brezhnev. Both reached a somewhat tense agreement on pooling funds to figure out what this radiation was exactly by setting up a joint research venture. The sheer amount of red tape surrounding the projects was immense, since both parties wanted to keep it hidden lest they admit they couldn’t do science on their own. That’s the first apparition of the HPI, though it wasn’t called that at the time. Project Black Sun, joint American-Soviet venture, they even got a research complex near the Bering Strait. Both countries increased their defense spending the moment they signed off on the project and quietly channeled funds towards the project.

For years, Black Sun laid out detection equipment around the planet and snuck it on board of high flying planes. They had access to NASA and the Soviet Space Program to obtain data and steer their research the way they wanted. They even snuck equipment on the launchers as they saw fit. In that time period, Black Sun reached two conclusions.

One, the ‘thaumic’ radiation as they coined the term in ’69, only affects humans. Dogs, cats, frogs, you name it; they don’t have to worry about it. But that’s something you’re probably already aware of.

Second, they found where the radiation was coming from. The galactic core was producing it. Our understanding of the radiation was mediocre at best at the time, so it forced Black Sun to go further than before, and for that they would need more resources. That was decided in’72.

Enters the UN Security Council. It was time for Black Sun to open up to the rest of the world and recruit from an even wider pool of experts and scientists, embracing even more of the global community. A secret resolution was passed to implicate all countries in the affair, but it still had to remain secret because something very alarming had been discovered by the head scientist when he discovered the source.

I don’t know if you’re aware of that; but in astronomy you’re technically looking into the past. That’s the thing with light travelling at a certain speed. Another thing is, astronomers can make observations of an object and estimate when it’s about to go supernova or what ‘sit. That’s precisely what they did with the core when they observed the frequency at which it was emitting the radiation.

Calculations were inaccurate, thanks in no small part to the technology available at the time. Still, with the scale at which astronomers work, they reached the conclusion that we were dangerously close to a burst of said radiation that would reach biblical proportions. As in, compare a solar flare to the Sun exploding. Humanity was in danger, though we didn’t know if we had two or two hundred years to find a solution.

By ’75, Project Black Sun was officially under the administration of the United Nations. Additional funding and scientist streamed in, and the project was renamed HPI. Our focus was now to better calculate the time we had and research a solution. Any kind of protection against the end of Mankind. Most of our efforts were centered on how Earth’s magnetic field managed to keep out the minimal thaumic radiation that had injured astronauts in the past.

Things we going well until the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Without the huge defense spending that could hide a trickle of money and resources going our way, progress slowed down despite our best attempts at finding funding using less… respectable methods. Our hopes went from saving the entire planet by 2030, to maybe a country, then to a few hidden facilities. Priorities changed, without the Security Council really being aware of it. And how could we tell them? That as far as we were concerned humanity was doomed in the near future? That wouldn’t fly with them.

Granted, we still had access to unparalleled tech, but we were way ahead of ourselves in this endeavor. Many prototypes of shielding tech were conceived, but we were limited in the scope of their use. We were trying to do what Earth’s magnetic core was doing, only without a gigantic mass of molten metal and a hundred thousand times stronger. No small task, many of our scientists burned themselves out to get just one step further.

And while the scientists were busy, other branches in our organization came to life despite the limited resources. To prepare us for the worst: having to recreate humanity from scratch, preserve our way of life, the whole nine yards. That’s how facilities like the one in Chooz were created, and since we were not sure of how effective the shielding would be, a few more of those were created, countering the limitations on how many different shields we could fit in one place.

And then… Well it gets less interesting. It was a matter of keeping the facilities ready for the big day while continuously improving the shields. Make sure the facilities are always crewed and the shields on, plan for what’s going to happen after, get as much tech as possible.

And that brings us to now.” Eko concluded.

“That’s a lot to digest at once…” Dilip muttered. “Did you expect the monster part? And what happened with my ship?”

“That I’m afraid, is something we’re trying to piece together as hard as you are. Unfortunately, our hands are tied until we can adapt our tech to get out. It’s on you until then Captain.”

“Climb a hill… only to discover the mountain it was hiding.” He whispered. “How ready were you?”

“Not at all. Estimations were off by a whole three years. Lots of our outside agents were lost in the cataclysm.” Eko sighed. “Frankly finding you and sorting out the nuclear affair is the best news we’ve had in a while.” He admitted, for once dropping his façade.

“There is hope yet. I may have lost the appearance of one, but I’m still human and we will make it through this crisis Eko. Whatever your scientists need from outside to figure out a solution, you can count on Amandine to get it. Mutual support is the only way we will make it through, you can tell your superiors that.” The Captain said firmly.

“Believe me I will. Goodbye Captain.” The HPI agent said before pressing a button on his keyboard.

The screen went black and Dilip finally allowed his shoulders to sag. After letting out a long sigh, he opened the folder on his computer that contained his research on the change and monsters.

He could already picture himself pulling another all-nighter.

Author's Notes:

And that concludes the first large arc of this story. Plot wise things should calm down for a bit now before they move on to another port.

Eko's story at the end is yet another highlight of how I choose to stray from the usual PaP canon, and this brings about the first hint of the seafarer/HPI alliance that was mentioned in the prologue.

Length wise I only have myself to blame. When I started off I thought I would be done with this arc around the 50k words mark, but now I overshot 100k words and the word documents total 200 pages. I really have issues writing compact stories it seems...