18 December, 2024 @mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2597 (Part 18) | Prompt: (a silver coin)

Part 17: "Infiltrating The Core" Recap

The remaining ICO soldiers retreated, taking cover behind thick trunks of surrounding pines. Detecting them, Amos sprinted laterally, his hybrid speed blurring his silhouette against the dark forest backdrop. He slid behind a massive oak tree. His body warned him that he was fifty Earth years old; his mind propelled him toward a hybrid lifespan.

Initially, he breathed heavily before verbally ordering, "regulate". Now, he mentally ordered, "magnify" as his ears pricked back and detected a directive from one of the remaining retreating soldiers. "Target is non-compliant. Lethal force authorized," Commence planetary purge protocol. Countdown: D-1." a mechanized voice crackled from its helmet relay.

He instantly calculated the timeframe; his reaction was swift.

A godsend was Vera. He remembered two flashbangs he carried. Detaching them from his belt, he pulled the pins, and tossed them to the left and right of his position. Flash. Bang.

In the opposite direction he ran. I must get to Annetta, was his immediate mission. Viktor tracked Amos on his portable device. Reaching for the car's headlights, he signaled in code only a few seconds. Amos' lazer-focused retinas located them huddled in the woods halfway between Viktor's lab and the highway leading to the ICO Headquarters' compound.

He immediately checked; exhaling slightly after determining Annetta wasn't injured, then inquired about Vera's safety. Viktor had safely deposited her elsewhere to await his next instructions.

"I know what I must do. I've known all along. I've seen the answer. It lies within the compound. I must move quickly.

"As Viktor already warned, let's not go off half cocked," Julius and Benetiz pleaded. "We need to discuss this more."

"Not one of you are going anywhere. This mission is for me only. End of discussion!" Amos declared.

But Julius, Annetta, Benetiz, and Viktor refused. "We've come this far. Turning back isn't an option. We know the fate waiting for us back there. I don't know about the others, but I'd rather die trying than live under the brutal regime of the ICO and its alien world domination idealistic evil," Benetiz proclaimed.

The drive toward the compound in the Pacific Northwest was a blur of rainy, desolate highway. Although late summer, the weather had definitely broke the farther north they drove. "I'm surprised the roads aren't heavily monitored," Viktor noticed. "But then, the permanent curfew ensured that."

Amos remained quiet, peering out the fogged window, focusing on his mission. The tingling in his hands grew intense the closer they came. He studied them, watching the faint, shimmering veins; a color he now understood as the signature of his Omicron Vorsey lineage. "Benedikt Inhumos," Amos muttered, the name leaving a bitter taste. "He's hunting me for Zolgroth."

"Not just hunting you," Viktor replied, his eyes glued to the slick road. "Zolgroth believes humanity has failed to submit. He's using the Silver Coin Portal to send his elite, and the final phase is," he paused.

"Total erasure," Amos completed, the realization crystallizing into a cold, hard purpose. "The ICO North headquarters. That's where he’s keeping it, isn't it?"

Viktor nodded slowly. "He's watching through the network. He won't dare harm you. He desperately needs your DNA. If you go, you are walking directly into the core."

*Amos turned his face toward Viktor, his stare hardening. The metal humming in his palm unleashed a new, unidentifiable clarity that washed over him. The anger was immediate and all-consuming. "Then I deliver it to him. He paused, "And, I’ll proceed to scorch the core into oblivion." He turned back toward the window. *

All the while, the rest of the group exchanged glances, wondering how one man would be able to accomplish that feat. But after witnessing his transformation, they didn't doubt he could.

"Well, you'll need this," Viktor explained, handing the blueprints to the ICO Headquarters' compound.

The ICO North compound was a brutal fortress, a gray scar on the landscape. The structure loomed like a behemoth, an unnatural, obsidian-gray blotch against the pine-covered, snow-capped mountains, its sleek, metallic exterior designed to blend with the sky.

They finally arrived. Amos forbade the group to come.

"Make sure you follow the perimeter behind the compound then," Viktor pointed out on the blueprint. "Headquarters faces west. I've never been inside. My security clearance wouldn't allow entrance. I was restricted to the Silver Otherworld Watchtower on the east side. Its towers misses nothing, so stay vigilant."

*Amos waited at the edge of the tree line, watching the guards as they moved with a synchronized, unnatural efficiency. He approached the perimeter. Desiring to tear through the armored gate, he raised his fists. To his surprise, instantly, the security control panel blinked. Not issuing an alarm, but quietly entering a sequence of patterns, then the command. *

"Your KEY, please," the mechanical voice instructed.

*Instinctively, he placed his left palm against the cold metal, allowing his skin shift to match the frequency of the generated pattern. The gate accepted him as "Unidentifiable Administrator - Temporary Access Granted." He'd no idea that as a hybrid, the latent code in his body inherited from his mother would interact with CIGOL technology. *

Once inside, he moved through the corridors, his pulse quickening. Again, he issued it orders to "regulate"; this time silently. The security cameras detected him only as a fluctuation in the electromagnetic field. He bypassed three patrol squads with fluid movements.

As Amos approached the end of a hallway, he faced a steel door labeled: "ENTRANCE BEYOND THIS POINT PROHIBITED". Damn. What next? he hissed, pulling out the blueprint. He was looking for one person: Benedikt Inhumos, the transformed human face of the CIGOL occupation. The man who had authorized the project that resulted in Amos' creation. Although he hadn't foreseen the train derailment and subsequent mating of Amos' alien mother with a human.

Suddenly, a cold voice echoed directly into his mind, bypassing his ears. “We expected you sooner, Amos. Zolgroth will be pleased. You will be the keystone of the new world. Do not move.”

Amos didn’t reply. Nor did he expect a cylindrical, glass chamber to descend from the ceiling to the marble floor and encircle him. Immediately, he felt a surge of unfamiliar energy course through his body.

Instead, he tilted his head back, closed his eyes, placed his arms across his chest, and forced that energy outward, bursting the cylinder. Shards of glass fell around his ankles. He stepped beyond the heap and placed his palm on the door.

Behind the door, Benedikt shrank back, his eyes widening as the door pulsated inward with a throbbing that rang in his ears. He'd not seen a hybrid force as powerful as Amos. But then, he'd only encountered two other specimens.

The door burst open, flinging the steel structure across the room within inches of Benedikt's body. Amos stepped inside.

He came face to face with Benedikt Inhumos.

Now: Part 18 ("The Hybrid Meets His Maker")

Julius, Annetta, and Benetiz didn't stay behind as Amos ordered. And they carried weapons of their own, together with directions from Viktor. But their entry into the Compound wasn't as smooth as Amos'.

Alarms shrieked. "INTRUDERS. SECTOR 1. PERIMETER," the system announced.

Guards descended upon them, flooding the hallways. Their weapons proved effective.

Meanwhile, Amos' target of the facility’s central power core; the location he had seen in Viktor's blueprint, proved correct.

He now stood face to face with Benedikt Inhumos, instinctively knowing the man was not human. Underneath Inhumos' designer facial features lurked an alien. Not the same breed as the CIGOL, Zolgroth, but just as powerful. Amos recalled the directive Inhumos had given the foot soldiers for the deadline.

He'd no time to waste with explanations. The countdown wasn't in his favor.

"Amos Goodall," Benedikt said smoothly. "I've been waiting a long time to meet you. I"m honored."

Benedikt Inhumos. The name tasted like ash. "Your desire was to use my hybrid biology to stabilize your star gate technology has failed. You believe you're an indomitable force. Not anymore," Amos hissed, his voice vibrating with a frequency that shattered a small vial on a nearby counter. He didn't just feel anger; he felt a genetic mandate for destruction.

"I'm not here for afternoon tea," he growled, his voice vibrating with latent alien energy.

Inhumos shifted directly in front of the consoles, his hands behind him steadily pushing buttons on the console, while he spoke. Surrounded by cold screens, his focus was on finalizing the "Screener Protocol" to eliminate all humans on Earth.

"The metamorphosis is almost complete. I'm pleased Viktor persuaded you of your value to our cause. You returned to your senses once you connected with Zolgroth. Your human form is temporary. Your potential is not.” Your kind will power our future."

Inhumos talked as if he'd not sent his soldiers to kill him the night before.

"My kind," Amos growled, "ends your future."

Benedikt's eyes widened. He stammered, staring at the unnatural hue of Amos' eyes. "Security! Lockdown!"

Amos didn’t let him finish; nor did he strike Inhumos.

Instead, with a thought, he overloaded the electronics in the room, shattering the windows and sealing the doors, shutting down the entire floor.

But he didn't kill him instantly. He needed the breach to mean something.

Instantly, his thoughts turned to Annetta. He knew she wouldn't stay behind, but attempt to help. And, of course, Julius and the rest would follow.

He couldn't abandon his mission to search for them. As he studied the room for his next move, a chilling sensation overcame him.

In the far corner, he caught sight of a familiar digital display scrolling inside the wall.

He stared up at the embedded depression. A replica of the Wall of Success at the research hospital in another sector of ICO North. His lips pursed and a wry smile slowly formed, together with a tinge of regret reading the accolades of five Goodall family members.

He recalled time there under observation.

From the depths of the pity they heaped upon his head, a single-minded focus took shape. He, Annetta, Julius, Roy and the other dissenters had planted the seeds of doubt in all four corners of the continent. ICO was destined to succumb to their enlightenment.

And my small part I played in unveiling the black hole of success is my reward. Success. Riches. Rewards. Resentment. Destruction. Angst. Betrayal. Deserting one's family. From the outside, it looks like a world not of this planet. I always knew within my depths that ICO was not of this world. Sent to destroy our civilization, they gained a stronghold.

But how much longer will it last? he recalled thinking as his head filled with a foreign substance meant to befuddle the mind and ease into compliance.

And all due to the ownership of that Silver Coin in exchange for freedom. The fragment of life comes at too steep a price for mankind.

The dream was vivid, even through the mind-submission drugs.

Clothes fell from my body effortlessly as I ran. Where I was running to I didn't know. The Silver Coin that once meant my demise once deactivated was a myth; at least for me. I controlled The Silver Coin. Thoughts of my parents flashed in a nearby bush. For a second, hands flew out and beckoned me to join them in the shade.

I struggled to loosen the restraints around my arms and body. The stark, white hospital walls closed in as if a kaleidoscope.

I remembered voices of the four ICO Quality Control medical staff sitting; observing. Notes recorded quickly on individual electronic devices registered in the ICO database.

Agent Control No. 4 muted his microphone. She turned to her colleagues and implored, "I've concluded that there's absolutely no need to discuss this more"

Agent No. 3 nodded. "Do we all agree? No timeline extended will redeem this subject. His intelligence factor will never reach the level required for acceptance into WAVE."

"His family will be pleased." Agent 2 covered the microphone as he spoke. "No one must uncover the truth. All four understood the implication. Amos's oldest sister, Cunnelda, who submitted his name for our consideration, wasn't one to defy."

"They should be pleased, Agent 1 responded tersely. They paid handsomely enough."

Amos shook his head violently as he recovered from what the nightmare at ICO North medical facility. A horrific place where the fragment of life hung heavily over one's conscious.

"The payment ends today," he declared.

[to be continued]