Incursion Protocol

A jagged stream of red light materialized inches from my face. It wasn’t a clean beam like you’d expect, but uneven, haphazard; light had no business behaving this way. I dropped, but it was too late. With the speed at which the coral block and I were moving along the conveyor, there wasn’t enough time. My head didn’t get shorn in two, though, much to my surprise and relief.

I slammed down, chestplate smashing against the coral block, head still in one piece. Another laser flared to life ahead, and I had to launch myself upwards to avoid it, watching it slice through the first inch of the block. I landed in the still-glowing splatter left behind, but better that than a laser to the face. More beams blazed into existence, and I rolled left and right, dodging as they split the coral into smaller and smaller pieces.

Breathing heavily, I stood awkwardly, my body twisted to avoid the previous beams. The block wobbled, threatening to topple, but settled. I flopped down heavily on it, relieved to see no more death beams ahead. Faleun stood further down the conveyor, staring at me with her head cocked, clearly puzzled by my antics.

I shook my head, a look of sheer exasperation on my face, and pulled up my status menus. Nope, no sign of what I was looking for. Namely, a luck stat. It had to be hidden because this was bullshit! Faleun had maybe one laser beam come close, and none had even touched her block! Mine, on the other hand, looked like a mangled first attempt at sculpture: something a Renaissance apprentice would be ashamed of. Michelangelo would’ve kicked me out his workshop for sure, a boot print on my ass for wasting his time.

Finally catching my breath, I noticed a shape in the upper left corner of my vision: a kidney bean with a flashing section on top. I raised an eyebrow in confusion before rolling my eyes. Of course. It was an icon for my adrenaline stat, and The System, attempting to be clever, had represented it as an actual adrenal gland. Good thing I remembered enough high school anatomy, or that would have confused the hell out of me.

The rest of the ride was rather uneventful. Faleun and I hunkered down on our blocks, the conveyor pulling us ever closer to our destination: the towering shaft of yellow light that was now dominating the sky. A few Dulox patrol ships buzzed overhead, their ugly forms darting across the horizon. They gave the conveyor a quick once-over, but apparently finding nothing out of the ordinary, they moved on without incident.

As we approached, a massive building loomed into view beneath the base of the space elevator. It reminded me of those giant warehouses back on Earth, the kind owned by billionaire bookshop moguls, but this one was ten times the size, with conveyors streaming in from all directions like a massive, industrial spider web. We were fast approaching a shadowed entrance as the conveyor dipped down, leading us inside.

Just before we were swallowed by darkness, Faleun shot me a hand signal: a series of convoluted gestures that ended with a sharp nod. Of course, I nodded back, but I had no idea what she was trying to convey. You can’t just come up with hand signals on the fly, and even if she hadn’t, you can’t expect an alien invader to just know what that meant! For all I knew, she was either giving me directions or telling me how to bake a cake. Either way, I nodded like I was about to start preheating the oven.

Before I knew it, I was deep inside the bowels of the space elevator warehouse, flashing lights streaming around in a chaotic display. I froze, standing on a chunk of coral speeding along a conveyor, surrounded by alien tech, fully aware that at any moment, a sharp turn could fling me off and smear me against the nearest wall.

Something slammed into me, knocking the coral block out from under my feet. I flailed, arms instinctively crossing over my face as I braced for the inevitable impact. I didn’t hit the ground or a wall, though. Instead, I hung suspended in the air. My mind scrambled to make sense of it.

Was I caught on something? No, I could feel claws digging into my chestplate. Someone was holding me.

“Will you,” Faleun’s voice hissed in my ear, “keep still?”

Realization hit me: she had grabbed me. I let my body go limp, no point in fighting her grip. One of her claws had missed its mark and was painfully lodged in my shoulder. I reached up, and felt the slick, smooth scales of her calves.

I couldn't see anything, but I felt us shift, and gravity tugged at me from a different angle. She must’ve been moving along the ceiling. A moment later, I was dropped, landing with a clang on my back.

“Gah,” I grunted. “I don’t even know where the baking pans are! Your kitchen’s a nightmare!”

“What?” Faleun’s voice came from somewhere in the darkness.

“Never mind,” I groaned, sitting up. “How do you see anything in here? It’s pitch black.”

I heard her tongue click in the dark. “I did not realize your species lacked the capability of seeing in the dark.”

I winced as I stood and prodded at my shoulder. She hadn’t broken the skin, which was unexpected, maybe my luck stat wasn’t as deep in the pits as I’d thought.

“Come,” she said, padding off, “I see a hint of light further along.”

I reached out slowly, trying to find a handrail or something to guide me. I heard her pause, then pad back toward me before grabbing my shoulder and pulling me along. Her claw neatly found its mark again, and this time I felt a bit of blood trickle down my arm. We plodded forward, the clang of the catwalk under our feet, while the hum of the conveyor faded into the distance.

As we moved, the outline of a door came into view, short, squat, and perfectly sized for a Dulox. Light leaked around its edges. Faleun released me and cracked the door open, pressing the side of her snout against it to peer out.

“No Dulox,” she whispered.

“Great,” I whispered back. “Now what?”

She hesitated before answering. “I do not know. We have only studied from the outside, avoiding patrols and the conveyor system. This is the first time we have entered the light.”

I sighed. “When I said we should check out the tower of light, I meant we should do some reconnaissance, figure out a plan of attack.”

“That is what we are doing.”

“No,” I said, trying to stay calm, “we’ve infiltrated and are now sneaking around the place.”

“We do reconnaissance and infiltrate at the same time,” she replied.

I couldn’t tell if she was messing with me or being serious, but I tried to keep my frustration in check despite the growing knot of irritation in my gut. “Fine,” I said, exhaling slowly, “I guess we’ll do some light infiltration while we’re here.” I moved toward the door. “May I?”

She nodded and stepped aside. I mimicked her earlier move, pressing my face to the crack and peering out. A hallway stretched endlessly in both directions, snaking off into the dimly lit distance.

“Look,” I said, turning to the Slipscale, who somehow looked even more menacing in the shadowy light. “I’m no expert, but I’ve watched a lot of old sci-fi films. My best guess? We’re not going to find anything useful for taking down this massive structure here on this level. This is basically the shipping and receiving floor. You don’t put a space elevator generator in the mailroom. It’s got to be on another level, I’m just not sure which way to go.”

“Upwards,” she said without hesitation. “The coral eats everything… as long as it has enough time.”

“Fair enough,” I said. I wasn’t about to point out that any species advanced enough to build a space elevator probably had figured out how to protect their tech from a dangerous substance they were intimately familiar with. But since I had no better idea, upwards seemed as good a direction as any.

I eased the door open, and we slipped out into the main structure of the space elevator.

“Let me know if you hear anything,” I whispered as we crept through the quiet halls. I was banking on this area being mostly automated, hoping to avoid any surprise encounters.

“Slipscale have good eyesight. Hearing outside of water? Particularly poor,” she said flatly.

Of course.

You have gained a level in: Slipscale Knowledge.

Twenty-six levels later, each filled with an endless number of stairs, and we finally seemed to be nearing an area that housed more important machinery than just coral delivery systems. The stairs, designed for the small, stubby feet of the Dulox, had little effect on Faleun. Her wide, soft amphibian-like feet allowed her to treat the stairs like a textured ramp, moving with ease.

For me, on the other hand, it was an exercise in pure frustration. The stairs were small enough to make my footing uneven but large enough to trip me up every five steps. It felt like climbing through a children’s playground, where everything was just slightly off in proportion.

Grumbling under my breath, I peered out from the stairwell door into a much more obviously used hallway. The hum of massive electrical equipment echoed through the entire level, and I could almost feel the energy vibrating in the air. Whatever was housed here, it was big.

We moved cautiously down the hallway, the hum of machinery vibrating in my bones. Faleun glided ahead, making no sound as she moved, while I stumbled along behind her, doing my best not to trip over my own feet, the stairs having taken their toll on my legs. The deeper we went, the louder the hum became, and the air started to feel thick with energy, like we were creeping closer to the heart of something massive.

Out of nowhere, Faleun’s hand shot out and clamped down on my shoulder, yanking me back into a small alcove. I barely stifled a yelp as my back slammed into the cold metal wall, her claws digging into my arm with enough pressure to send a jolt of pain shooting up to my neck.

“Patrol,” she whispered, her eyes darting toward the corridor ahead.

I strained to listen, and sure enough, the faint clatter of Dulox feet on metal floors was getting louder. We were exposed, this place wasn’t designed like the mining station, without any convenient side passages or nooks to hide in. Just one long, narrow hallway with nowhere to go. They’d be on top of us any second.

Faleun’s eyes flicked around, her body coiled tight like a spring. Then, she spotted it, a vent near the ceiling, just big enough for one of us to squeeze through at a time.

She turned to me, her eyes sharp with purpose.

“Up,” she whispered.

I blinked. “Up? You can’t be serious-"

Before I could finish, she grabbed me by the back of my chestplate and, without a second thought, launched me upward like a bag of space potatoes. My head smacked into the vent grate with a solid thunk, and I scrambled, trying to catch hold of the metal edges. With more flailing than finesse, I pulled myself up, the narrow space barely accommodating my armor. I wriggled inside, my legs still dangling as I tried to shove my way through.

Faleun followed suit, her larger bulk almost seeming to shrink as she extended her arms and legs, narrowing her frame. Unsure if the noises had alerted the patrol, I pushed forward, the armor scraping along as we went further down the vent system. Behind me, Faleun slid through the vent with ease, only the soft clicking of her nails against metal. Meanwhile, I was wedged in like a poorly packed piece of luggage.

Eventually, I came upon a slotted section below me and peered through. Some kind of data room, with Dulox hunched over consoles, monitoring a massive flow of information as it scrolled down their screens.

“This could be a good place to get some information,” I whispered, “if we could figure out what kind of tech is keeping the elevator up and running, we can find a way to jam it up.”

Faleun nodded.

“We’ve just got some Dulox in our way. They can’t stay in there forever, we can wait until shift change, or-”

And then, as if on cue, the vent beneath us groaned. I froze.

“Don’t-" I began, but it was too late.

The vent gave a horrible screech, and before I could even drop the ‘f’ in an f-bomb, we were plummeting. I crashed into a terminal, rolling off it and hitting the floor in a graceless heap. Faleun landed beside me, somehow managing to look poised even as we smashed into a Dulox control room like a couple of lunatics.

Dulox heads swiveled in our direction, their beady eyes wide with surprise.

I groaned, forcing myself to my feet as the Dulox scrambled for their weapons. Great.

“Well,” I muttered, brushing myself off, “looks like we’re doing this the hard way.”