In the shadows of the Void seven figures crouched low to the ground. Their black and gray camouflage allowed them to blend seamlessly with their dark surroundings and their night vision goggles allowed them to see everything around them.
They watched in unison as a bloodied and bruised man wearing nothing but a hospital gown approached a small glowing orb that looked green on their goggles. Without any hesitation he walked directly into the orb and both he and the orb promptly vanished with a small flash of light.
Convinced that he was gone the team rose from the ground one by one.
“Well shit,” said a muscular man standing just ahead of everyone else, “I was hoping to have a word with him.”
A similarly muscular woman scoffed and walked forward to stand next to him.
“You honestly think he’d have had anything remotely useful to say?”
“He survived the Shelf wearing nothing but a hospital gown. He even had a scrape with one of the Memory Fishers and walked away relatively unharmed.”
“The same can’t be said for his friend.”
The man grimaced.
“Another individual I was hoping to have a word with.”
The woman turned to him with a frown.
“What is your fascination with the weak?”
“Once again, they survived the Shelf. That’s without fancy helmets,” he said pointing to his combat helmet that had wires running along it’s length, “or weapons of any kind.”
A slightly shorter man that was on the far right side of the group spoke up.
“I heard the first four squads they sent into this realm didn’t fare so well. They had the finest weapons Darkshield could provide them.”
“But they didn’t have our technology,” the man said grimly, “yet another failing of Darkshield.”
This last comment silenced the group for a moment and they merely stared at the spot where the strange man had disappeared.
The woman was the first to break the silence and she turned to scan their surroundings.
“The Memory Fishers are drawing closer. It seems they haven’t realized their prey has escaped.”
“We need to be moving anyway,” the man said turning to scan the horizon himself, “we need to confirm that the next phase goes smoothly.”
Another man in the line nodded and stepped away. He took off the pack he was wearing and quickly dug out a metal cylinder covered in wires. Setting it on the ground he attached a small handheld device to it using a cord and began typing one handed into the device.
“Hostile six o clock.”
The team glanced up and saw what the shorter man had pointed out. A large amorphous creature was pulling itself toward them using a crab leg. The taller man felt his helmet grow warm, start buzzing, and then went cold.
“Persistent aren’t they,” he growled as the helmet cooled on his head.
One of the men to his left visibly shuddered as the creature tried invading his mind only to be repelled by the helmet he was wearing. This pattern was repeated with every member of the group before his helmet started growing warm again.
“Five minutes until our window opens.”
The man nodded irritably as he watched the creature draw closer. It would take twenty minutes for it to reach them, but its mental attacks were getting annoying.
“Do you think it’ll work?”
He looked over at the woman and saw she was looking back where the man had disappeared, her goggles tilted up so she was looking out with her naked eyes.
“What are you talking about?”
“The coup.”
“Of course, it will,” he said loudly enough to be heard by the rest of the team as he drew closer to her.
Once at her side his voice dropped to a whisper.
“There’s been more resistance than was expected.”
“That’s why I’m wondering,”’ she hissed back, “they’ve been surprisingly resilient.”
“But even so,” he said firmly, “the plan is working as intended.”
“For now,” she said softly, “but I’ve been noticed things are slipping through the cracks.”
“A few rats will always escape the house fire.”
“But these rats are proving resourceful. And we keep finding rats.”
He sighed and flipped up his goggles. The helmet warmed again and he resisted the urge to scratch his scalp knowing that the second his helmet was off he’d be lost in la la land.
“I expect the coup to be successful, but I don’t expect it to be a coup de grace. This corporation is resourceful and deeply embedded in everything. But we’ve managed to find the heart and stab it. Now all that’s left is to ensure the rest of the body doesn’t heal the wound and the body will quickly follow it.”
She stayed silent and the man understood why. As one of the most intelligent and resourceful members of his team she was good at looking at the bigger picture. The others were little more than jarheads who’d follow orders into hell and never question why their clothes were on fire.
But she was different, she was capable of quickly dissecting a mission and flaying it open to see the grander plan. It was part of why she had ascended so quickly to intelligence, special ops, black ops, private work, and now this team. It was also what made her dangerous.
This latest mission was different than most they’d been tasked with. He’d killed Darkshield employees over the years and had been to some strange places. But never had he been charged with dismantling the corporation from the inside. This told him that Darkshield had gone from being a thorn in his organization’s side to something more sinister and dangerous.
This is likely what she was wondering as she stared off into the shadows and if he was being honest with himself, she was likely to identify what had changed in Darkshield before he did.
And for some reason that terrified him.
“We have connection, window opening in five, four, three, two, one, lock.”
Glancing over he saw the cylinder open like a flower and a small green orb appeared in the center. It slowly drifted up until it was hovering a few feet above the ground. The man quickly disconnected the small device and stashed it on the pouch on his hip. He then carefully pulled the cylinder from under the orb and folded it shut before stashing it in his pack.
“Enter the window, secure the other side.”
The team quickly drew their weapons and one by one approached the green orb. They’d reach out with a hand and touch it. The second their hand would make contact the orb would ripple and the individual would disappear.
Within seconds the rest of the team was gone leaving the taller man and the woman.
“You know we can’t trust them.”
He looked back at the woman and saw her staring at him. He didn’t have to ask who she was referring to.
“Of course not, I might agree with their stance on Darkshield, but that doesn’t exactly make them the good guys in my book.”
“Aren’t you worried about handing over Darkshield’s secrets to them?”
He shook his head, grimacing as the helmet grew warmer more frequently now that the rest of the team was gone.
“I have my own plans for that.”
She tilted her head curiously but remained silent.
“It’s nothing to worry about right now, but I’ll let you know when the time is right.”
Nodding she stepped past him and walked to the green orb. She lowered her goggles, drew her weapon and started reaching out. Something made her pause and she looked over at him.
“Just promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Once the house burns down and the rats have fled, we make sure that another house can’t be built.”
Smiling he drew his weapon, lowered his goggles, and walked over to stand next to her.
“Careful, you’re getting close to saying my plans out loud.”
Giving a small smile she touched the orb and vanished before his eyes. The green orb was barely flickering as it hung lazily in the air and he watched it for a moment.
“I’ll make sure all of the houses remain burned to the ground.”
He tapped the orb and both he and the orb vanished.
The creature that had been crawling toward him paused for a moment. It then sprouted a crab-leg on a different section of its body and started crawling off into the darkness wandering aimlessly.
Author’s Note:
I hope you enjoyed Darkshield: John’s Arc 1, it’s been a lot of fun writing and I intend to keep going with the series. If you want more details about the next part of the series then tune in Halloween for more details. Like the first book I will be releasing it one chapter at a time on this site for free. Find out where John was sent, gain more insight into the Darkshield corporation, and learn the identity of the mysterious organization attacking them.
If you’ve enjoyed reading the book in serial fashion than feel free to support the project through Patreon. You can find a community of readers like you who enjoy this world I’m creating and want to see it grow by providing whatever support they can. My Patreon page can be found by clicking here.
Finally, if your finances are tight right now or you have mixed feelings about the series and aren’t sure you want to support a weirdo, then keep reading for free as the chapters come out every week. I’m doing this for fun and I’m appreciative of anyone who’s coming along for the ride.