Chapter 100 The Reactor Core
The Reactor Chamber was a cathedral of energy.
The Fusion Core occupied the central point of the expansive circular space with its three-story height that featured a glass cylinder structure and magnetic coil system. The Terrarium received its power from the fusion reaction, which created a blinding blue plasma column that operated all lights and heaters and locks throughout the facility.
The sun was experiencing a state of suffocation.
Black veins distributed like tree trunks throughout the area, covering the entire glass containment field. The core was being squeezed by the two things that pulsed with their sickly wet rhythm. The black rot created a contact point with the blue light, which produced inverted energy sparks that arced through the air as purple lightning that emitted a hissing sound similar to snakes.
The room contained unbearable conditions. My clothes became completely drenched with sweat. The air carried a flavor mixed with ozone and burning copper.
The woman stood on the catwalk, which faced the main control console.
She turned her body to face us completely.
The woman at the door wore an ID badge that hung crookedly from her torn lab coat. Dr. Aris. Chief Engineer.
Dr. Aris had departed.
Her left side appeared human while her body displayed an expression of terror. The right side of her face had been replaced with an irregular black crystal growth that extended from her skull and blocked her eye and jaw. The fingers of her right arm, which operated the console, had become fused into bone spikes that created a rapid tapping sound as they struck the keys.
The thing that used to be Dr. Aris said, "Mother is sleeping." The nightmare voice of her spoke with a combination of human vocal sounds and the harsh noise of rocks moving against each other. "But she is dreaming of you, Ryker."
Ryker walked onto the catwalk while he carried his Star-Metal sword at a lowered position.
Ryker commanded, "Step away from the console." His voice carried a calm tone yet his shoulders showed signs of tension. He understood from the same knowledge as I did that we would all die instantaneously if the containment field experienced a failure.
The Proxy tilted her head. The reactor light made her face look like it had a crystal side.
The Proxy asked, "Do you believe we desire to destroy it?" The woman who had lost most of her human features smiled cruelly while her human lips remained. "No, King of Balance. Destruction is waste. Mother does not waste."
She pointed toward the core with her deformed hand.
Energy is a key, she whispered. We will increase the power of the system instead of deactivating it.
Kael’s voice screamed in my ear piece. "Ryker! The readings! She’s bypassing the safety limiters! She’s pushing the core to 150% capacity! The device she built will create a time-space rift instead of causing an explosion. She needs to create a rift in reality.
I realized that they wanted to create a portal. They want to bring the Hive here. Directly into the city.
The Proxy crooned, "Correct, Vessel." The woman with only one human eye wept black tears. "The Deadlands are so far away. The march is so long. Why should we walk when a door can be opened for us?"
She slammed her hand down on a large red lever.
KLANG.
The reactor emitted a loud scream. The blue plasma column became violent, which caused it to crash into the glass barrier. The black veins began to double their speed while they consumed the excess power.
The blue sun center showed a black dot emerging. A tear in reality.
The command to stop her came from Ryker with a loud roar.
He charged.
The Proxy stayed motionless while she rose her crystal hand.
The black veins on the reactor wall lashed out. They operated as tentacles and not roots. Three massive tendrils whipped across the catwalk, aiming for Ryker.
Ryker maintained his speed. The first one passed him at high speed while its wind blew his hair back. He leaped over the second one. The third one he met with steel.
SHINK.
His sword cut the tendril in half. Black sludge sprayed the walkway, which began to hissing as it melted the metal grate.
Ryker shouted, "Baron! The vents!" Ryker ordered. "Don't let any reinforcements in!"
"On it!" Baron barked. He and his wolves fanned out, guarding the entrances as more of the spider-things began to crawl out of the ventilation shafts.
Ryker shouted, "Vane!" The console must be disabled to prevent the reaction from continuing.
"I'm going!" Vane yelled. He sprinted past Ryker, heading for the manual override station on the far side of the core.
I ran with him. "I've got your back!"
The Proxy saw Vane moving. She let out a screeching sound that broke all the pressure gauge glass.
All incoming interruptions must stop.
She jumped to reach Vane while coming from the console. She landed on all fours, like a spider, after her unnatural jump brought her all the way to Vane's position. She attacked with her bone-spike fingers.
I stepped in front of Vane.
I shouted, "Move, cyborg!"
I swung the mace.
The Proxy received my punch to the ribs which felt like I had struck a solid wall. The impact made my arms shake from my shoulders to my hands yet it sent her flying backward.
She turned her head towards me and began to hiss.
The gurgling sound she made announced the arrival of the "Vessel" whom she found "Tasty".
She jumped toward me. I avoided her attack but she moved too swiftly for me. The sharp claws of her crystal weapon cut through my skin and destroyed my clothes while it made my arm bleed.
The cold pain which brought me suffering made me lose balance and back away from the area.
Ryker shouted "Elara!" while he battled through tentacles which formed a barrier to reach our location.
I yelled that I was fine while my arm became completely numb. "Vane go now!" I ordered him.
Vane arrived at the station which needed him to override the system. He forcefully removed the panel from its position.
He muttered to himself while he began to connect his cable to the port.
The Proxy started to scream again as she attempted to pass through my body. I struck her with my mace for the second time while targeting her crystal head. She used her mutated hand to grab the mace handle. She exerted enough force to create a grip which felt like a device.
She expressed her disdain by saying "Weak" to me.
She forcefully took the mace away from me before throwing it into the reactor pit.
I lost all my weapons.
She raised her claws to cut my body open.
BOOM.
Ryker charged into her from the side. He took her down by throwing her forcefully onto the nearby railing.
They struggled against each other while standing on the catwalk edge. Ryker dropped his sword to hold her wrists, which brought the bone-spikes dangerously close to his neck.
The Proxy hissed into existence as she spat black saliva onto Ryker's face. "You have no worth. You pretend to be a King while you remain a hollow man. Mother knows your heart. It is empty."
Ryker stared at her directly in her eyes. His golden eyes burned with intense power.
Ryker pushed against her while he told her, "My heart makes disruptive sounds that disturb my peaceful existence."
He headbutted her.
CRACK.
His forehead slammed into her crystal skull while the crystal broke apart.
The Proxy began to scream while she walked back because the strong force had made her lose her vision.
Ryker instantly seized the opportunity to attack her when she moved. He took hold of her throat and belt. He used all his strength to lift her body from the ground.
"Mother needs to receive this message," Ryker declared. "My city needs to remain unvisited by you."
He threw her.
He threw her body across the railing directly toward the reactor core.
She shrieked during her descent. She hit the black veins which encircled the entire glass structure.
High-voltage electricity surged through the air. The Proxy's body experienced violent shaking as electricity of millions of volts coursed through her body. She burst apart into a cloud which consisted of black smoke and ashes.
Ryker shouted for Vane to arrive.
Vane screamed loudly because his mechanical eye was turning red while he struggled to complete his task. "The code is rewriting itself! It’s fighting me!"
The Network System
(Vane’s Perspective)
The static noise generated an extremely loud sound which blocked all other sounds. The static noise evolved into something greater than voices which Now sounded like a thunderous roar.
“OPEN THE DOOR. OPEN THE DOOR.”
The Rot wanted to remove me from the system. It created a firewall using the sound of human screams as its main component.
I saw the reactor core in the code. It appeared as a sun. The black code started to close in around it as the aperture in the center became wider.
I saw something through the aperture.
A massive, singular eye. Watching.
I said "Nope" because I wanted to refuse present events.
I didn't attempt to untie the knot. I didn't attempt to hack the code.
I pulled the virtual plug.
The emergency scram code exists as the reactor's suicide command.
I yelled the word "SCRAM".
I forcefully executed the command.
The Real World
THUNK-THUNK-THUNK.
Heavy control rods made of graphite slammed down into the reactor core.
The effect occurred immediately.
The blue sun flickered. The plasma became unstable. The fusion reaction stopped functioning.
The vertical beam of light disappeared from view.
The room became completely dark.
The dark center of the reactor which appeared as a black hole disappeared. The portal closed.
A period of silence followed.
The emergency red lights activated, which made the room shine with a red light that resembled blood.
The black veins on the reactor glass shriveled. The veins lost their power because they had no energy source to maintain their structure.
I leaned against the railing while I held my bleeding arm. Ryker arrived at my side within one second.
Ryker demanded to see the injury while he tore his own shirt into a bandage. He covered my arm with excessive pressure. "Did it get in the blood?"
I examined the wound. The blood was red. The blood remained red instead of changing to black.
I whispered "I think I’m okay" because The Origin Stone had protected me from danger.
Vane extracted the cable from his wrist. He moved down the wall until he reached the floor. He looked exhausted.
Vane whispered, "I saw it."
Ryker looked at him. "Saw what?"
Vane said, "The thing on the other side," he said while looking up with haunted eyes. "The Mother. She wasn't in the Deadlands, Ryker. She was... everywhere. She’s huge."
Baron stepped onto the catwalk after he kicked a dead spider-thing off.
The Wolf asked, "Is it over?"
Ryker walked to the railing. He looked down at the dark, silent reactor. The threat had been eliminated. The portal had been shut. The city was safe from the explosion.
The Terrarium existed as a dark space because the power had been shut down. The enemy had discovered our precise location.
Ryker responded to our question by saying, "No" he turned away from us. "We just poked the hornet’s nest."
He helped me stand up.
Ryker said, "We must go to the rooftop because The shield grid has shut down because of reactor shutdown. The city exists in a state of complete vulnerability.
"Defenseless against what?" I asked.
Ryker looked at the ceiling, as if he could see through the rock to the sky above.
"Against whatever she sends next," he said.